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.
Local scientists, health advocates and leaders from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine will gather in San Diego June 23 for a special public meeting to spotlight a new University of California, San Diego grant to pursue novel, fast-tracked stem cell-based therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease.
The University of California, San Diego, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Life Technologies Corporation today announced the initiation of studies which may lead to the future development of cell transplant therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Currently, there is only one FDA-approved pharmaceutical addressing this lethal disease, which affects approximately 30,000 people in the United States.
Research by investigators at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) is showing new promise in the treatment of melanoma, the most serious of skin cancers. The findings, published in the May 27, 2010, online edition of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology further validate the team's clinical and pre-clinical findings that blocking the signaling normally activated by a receptor called Grm1 results in decreased cell growth and decreased migration of melanoma cells, confirming that Grm1 is a potential target for the treatment of melanoma.
Aestus Therapeutics, Inc. announced that it has been awarded a $2 million Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant, from the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), will fund clinical trials of Aestus's novel, first-in-class treatment for chronic neuropathic pain.
In an effort to create a uniform and accurate method for determining brain death, the American Academy of Neurology has issued an updated guideline that provides doctors with a step-by-step process for determining brain death in adults. The guideline is published in the June 8, 2010, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Eating about a handful of pecans each day may play a role in protecting the nervous system, according to a new animal study published in the current issue of Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research. The study, conducted at the Center for Cellular Neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, suggests adding pecans to your diet may delay the progression of age-related motor neuron degeneration. This may include diseases like amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
University of Alberta researchers are looking at exercise as a new way to slow the degenerative processes of ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Dr. Kelvin Jones, a recipient of this year's ALS Canada Discovery Grant, has been pioneering research in this field for four years, using mice genetically altered to present familial ALS. He's found that exercise has a positive impact on the mice, slowing the disease significantly.
Providers of home medical equipment and services across Pennsylvania are proposing a fiscally responsible alternative to the mislabeled "competitive" bidding scheme currently under way in Medicare that will actually discourage competition, reduce access to care for many of Pennsylvania's more than two million Medicare beneficiaries, and put hundreds of Pennsylvania's homecare providers out of business.
Q Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that Piotr Walczak, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University has received notification of a $1,000,000 grant to be awarded by the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) which will enable further study of Q's human neural glial cell product Q-Cells® in preclinical models of demyelinating disease.
Neuralstem, Inc. updated the progress of its ongoing Phase I human clinical trial to treat ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease) at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The company announced that, after reviewing the safety data from the first cohort of three patients, the Safety Monitoring Board has approved moving to the next cohort and transplantation of the fourth patient.
As Memorial Day Weekend and the start of summer beach season fast approach, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) is making experts available to discuss the risks of developing skin cancer and what steps can be taken to prevent it.
The ALS Therapy Development Institute announced today that it is supporting a new awareness campaign driven by several ALS patients diagnosed with the progressive neurodegenerative disease commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease before the age of 30. This campaign, called "Young Faces of ALS," is designed and led by a group of seven young men and women and will consist of a group effort to visit each of the 30 Major League Baseball parks during the 2010 baseball season.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. today announced results from the Phase II ALSTAR trial. The trial was designed to assess efficacy, safety and tolerability of Talampanel (a selective AMPA antagonist) in reducing disease-related functional deterioration in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis patients.
Power3 Medical Products, Inc. announced today that it has filed two provisional patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) - one on Alzheimer's disease specific differential diagnosis in the clinical setting and the other on important differences in pathophysiology and therapeutic options for the genetically distinct groups of Alzheimer's disease patients.
Researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have discovered a link between sporadic and familial forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Neuralstem, Inc. announced that its stem cell treatment for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease), currently in a FDA-approved Phase I clinical trial, was featured on CNN last night with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, in the piece entitled "Stem Cell Medical Breakthrough".
Muscle degeneration and confinement to a wheelchair are the hallmarks of Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's, muscular dystrophy and other neurodegenerative diseases. One of the silent, and most serious, symptoms of these diseases is losing the ability to swallow.
Ceregene, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, announced today that enrollment is proceeding in a new Phase 1/2 clinical study evaluating CERE-120, a gene therapy product which delivers the neurotrophic factor neurturin, to dying neurons in Parkinson's disease patients. This new clinical study follows a completed Phase 2 trial and builds on experience gained in that trial, by enhancing the dosing regimen and optimizing the duration of patient follow up.
New research shows a gene variant may help protect the memory and thinking skills of older people. The research will be published in the April 20, 2010, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
In an invited presentation today before the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Knopp Neurosciences Inc. described further encouraging trends observed in a previously reported Phase 2 study of KNS-760704 (dexpramipexole) in ALS.
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