Lou Gehrig's Disease or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurological disorder characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neuron cells in the spinal cord and brain, which ultimately results in paralysis and death. The disease takes its less-scientific name from Lou Gehrig, a baseball player with the New York Yankees in the late 1920s and 1930s, who was forced to retire in 1939 as a result of the loss of motor control caused by the disease.
In 1991, a team of researchers linked familial ALS to chromosome 21. Two years later, the SOD1 gene was identified as being associated with many cases of familial ALS. The enzyme coded for by SOD1 carries out a very important function in cells: it removes dangerous superoxide radicals by converting them into non-harmful substances. Defects in the action of this enzyme mean that the superoxide radicals attack cells from the inside, causing their death. Several different mutations in this enzyme all result in ALS, making the exact molecular cause of the disease difficult to ascertain.
Recent research has suggested that treatment with drugs called antioxidants may benefit ALS patients. However, since the molecular genetics of the disease are still unclear, a significant amount of research is still required to design other promising treatments for ALS.
University of Utah chemists devised a new way to detect chemical damage to DNA that sometimes leads to genetic mutations responsible for many diseases, including various cancers and neurological disorders.
Biochemists at Oregon State University have made a fundamental discovery about protein structure that sheds new light on how proteins fold, which is one of the most basic processes of life.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have discovered evidence of a mechanism at the heart of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and related degenerative diseases. The research appears in today's edition of the journal Cell and highlights a possible new treatment strategy for the devastating disorders.
Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers studying spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) have found what they term "surprising similarities" between this childhood disorder that attacks motor neurons and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disorder in which cells of the nervous system die, leading to muscle weakness that impacts breathing, movement and other physical functions.
In today's issue of Nature, two new studies funded in part by The ALS Association both highlight an important new discovery around the C9orf72 mutation, the most common genetic defect associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Researchers have determined how the most common gene mutation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) disrupts normal cell function, providing insight likely to advance efforts to develop targeted therapies for these brain diseases.
Allergan plc, a leading global pharmaceutical company today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted the company's resubmission of its Supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for BOTOX (onabotulinumtoxinA) for the treatment of adults with lower limb (involving ankle and toe muscles) spasticity in adults.
A healthy motor neuron needs to transport its damaged components from the nerve-muscle connection all the way back to the cell body in the spinal cord. If it cannot, the defective components pile up and the cell becomes sick and dies. Researchers at the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke have learned how a mutation in the gene for superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), which causes ALS, leads cells to accumulate damaged materials.
When we type or perform other precise tasks, our brains and muscles usually work together effortlessly. But when a neurological disease or spinal cord injury severs the connection between the brain and limbs, once-easy motions become difficult or impossible.
Led by co-founders Pete Frates, Pat Quinn and Anthony Senerchia, and with the help of celebrities, the Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is making a splash again this August.
For the first time, UCLA researchers have shown that a natural protein fragment produced in the brain can act as an inhibitor of a key enzyme implicated in the onset of Alzheimer's disease, a finding that could lead to the development of new drugs to treat the disease.
Researchers on Mayo Clinic's Florida campus have identified key differences between patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) and those with the most common genetic form of ALS, a mutation in the C9orf72 gene.
Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of groundbreaking drugs to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), announced today that Robert G. Miller, M.D., Director of the Forbes Norris MDA/ALS Research Center at Sutter Health's California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, has been awarded a grant from The ALS Association for $1.5 million to help fund a Phase 2 clinical study of the company's investigational therapy for ALS, NP001.
The ALS Association and the ALS Finding a Cure Foundation are pleased to announce $3 million in funding for two new Phase II clinical studies through the ALS Accelerated Therapeutics (ALS ACT) initiative.
Stanford University researchers studying how the brain controls movement in people with paralysis, related to their diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease, have found that groups of neurons work together, firing in complex rhythms to signal muscles about when and where to move.
A previously unknown link between the immune system and the death of motor neurons in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, has been discovered by scientists at the CHUM Research Centre and the University of Montreal. The finding paves the way to a whole new approach for finding a drug that can cure or at least slow the progression of such neurodegenerative diseases as ALS, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases.
Cytokinetics, Incorporated and The ALS Association announced an expanded partnership in which the company will provide Gold Level Sponsorship of the National Walks to Defeat ALS as well as Platinum Level Sponsorship for ALS Association Golden West Chapter initiatives.
Researchers are developing a tiny wire that will speed up the discovery of new drugs and could one day unlock the mysteries of illnesses such as Alzheimer's or Lou Gehrig's disease.
Researchers at the University of Toronto have uncovered new insights on the genetic causes of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. These findings could uncover a new way to detect a genetic predisposition to ALS before the disease strikes.
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