ALS in Biological News

Jefferson researcher awarded Landenberger Foundation grant for ALS research

PHILADELPHIA Piera Pasinelli, Ph.D., co-director of the Frances and Joseph Weinberg Unit for ALS Research at the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University was recently awarded a Margaret Q. Landenberger Research Foundation grant to identify why drug therapies that showed p...

First trial in patients with a potential treatment of the incurable ALS muscle disease

Leuven (Belgium), Stockholm (Sweden) Permission has been granted to start the first safety and tolerability trial on patients for a remedy for ALS. ALS is an incurable, paralyzing neurodegenerative disorder that strikes 5 persons in every 100,000. The disease commonly affects healthy people in th...

Swamping bad cells with good in ALS animal models helps sustain breathing

In a disease like ALS - one that's always fatal and that has a long history of research-resistant biology - finding a proof of principle in animal models is significant. This week, Johns Hopkins researchers report that transplanting a new line of stem cell-like cells into rat models of the dise...

Genetics of ALS progression

An upcoming paper from Drs. Hidenori Ichijo and Hideki Nishitoh (The University of Tokyo) and colleagues lends new and valuable insight into the genetics of ALS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a rapidly progressive, fatal neurological disease involvi...

Hope among patients with ALS may take a variety of forms

New Rochelle, NY, March 27, 2008 -Sustaining hope in the face of a chronic, debilitating illness such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) should be a goal of palliative care and can take many forms, representing a continuum from focusing on the self to concern for others, as described in a pape...

New stem cell research could reduce number of animal experiments

...n muscles, affecting breathing and eventually causing death. Dr Subramanian will be making iPS cells from the skin cells of patients suffering from als to study the genes that are thought to cause the disease. She said: "These are exciting times for stem cell research and there is tremendous potent...

Jet-propelled imaging for an ultrafast light source

...f orienting the droplets can be advised. Nevertheless, Spence's group recently obtained excellent diffraction patterns of MS2 virus capsids at the als by subtracting the diffraction "noise" of the liquid jet itself. These capsids are the shells of the virus lacking its RNA genome and have the regular...

UMMS researchers isolate first 'neuroprotective' gene in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

...use new methods in genetics to understand ALS." als is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder affec...is estimated to account for 5 percent of inherited als cases. There are only four genes known, that when ...300,000 genetic variants in over 1,800 people with als and nearly 2,200 unaffected controls. The approach...

Caffeine appears to be beneficial in males -- but not females -- with Lou Gehrig's disease

...ften death within five years of symptoms. Although als (Lou Gehrig's disease) was discovered over a centu...cluding oxidative stress. Coffee, Caffeine and als Researchers agree that als is a multifactorial disease that involves a comple...

Caffeine appears to be beneficial in males -- but not females -- with Lou Gehrig's disease

...ften death within five years of symptoms. Although als (Lou Gehrig's disease) was discovered over a centu...cluding oxidative stress. Coffee, Caffeine and als Researchers agree that als is a multifactorial disease that involves a comple...

Rett Syndrome Research Trust advisor makes significant discovery

...ve disorder that leads to the death of motor neurons and total paralysis. "In Rett Syndrome, faulty glia seem to poison neurons, inhibiting growth; in als glia appear to release a toxic factor that kills motor neurons." Maniatis stated that "studies of the role of glia in a broad spectrum of neuronal dis...

Researchers genetically link Lou Gehrig's disease in humans to dog disease

...rs in avoiding DM in the future." Previously, als research has relied heavily on transgenic rodents ...hologic processes distinct from those occurring in als patients. Since the SOD1 mutation is spontaneous ...ficacies of therapeutic interventions for treating als in humans." ...

Various species' genes evolve to minimize protein production errors

...rophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Drummond and Wilke suggest that mistranslation may contribute to long-studied forms of als and other similar diseases. Wilke says the current study may lead to better ways to detect genes with mutations that lead to production of toxic, m...

Researchers uncover mechanism of action of antibiotic able to reduce neuronal cell death in brain

... of neurons in the brain and it may have direct implications in the therapy of many neurodegenerative diseases, such as in Alzheimers disease, stroke, als and epilepsy. In this study, Fisher and his colleagues were interested in identifying how the promoter region of the EAAT2 gene controlled the exp...

UMass Medical School's Craig Mello elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

...disease. At UMMS, researchers are taking full advantage of RNAi technology to speed investigation into a variety of diseases such as diabetes, cancer, als and HIV/AIDS. Mello, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, holds his BS in biochemistry from Brown University and his PhD in Cellular and...

Michigan Tech researchers link 11 genetic variations to type 2 diabetes

...scalled single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs or snipsassociated with type 2 diabetes. With chronic, complex diseases like Parkinsons, diabetes and als [Lou Gehrigs disease], multiple genes are involved, said Qiuying Sha, an assistant professor of mathematical sciences. You need a powerful test. Th...

Motor neuron disease and toxic substances: Possible link?

... is a rare, devastating illness in which nerve cells that carry brain signals to muscles gradually deteriorate. One form of it, Lou Gehrigs disease or als (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), is familiar to the public in the lives of scientist Stephen Hawking and Morrie Schwartz, about whom Mitch Alboms Tues...

Robot fetches objects with just a point and a click

...n and assistive technologies, and Dr. Jonathan Glass, director of the Emory als Center at the Emory University School of Medicine. El-E's creators are gathering input from als (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) patients and doctors to prepare El-E t...

New thoracic imaging approach can pinpoint underlying venous problems

...nce that focuses on the main diseases of the brain and nerves such as stroke, brain tumors, brain trauma, Parkinsons and Alzheimers disease, epilepsy, als and multiple sclerosis. ...

Gene hunters close in on Lou Gehrig’s disease

...the disease. Genes behind inherited forms of als -- responsible for about only 5 percent of all cas...f 276 adult male and female subjects with sporadic als and 271 adult male and female subjects with no his... The researchers found 34 genetic variants that als patients were more likely to have compared to norm...

Computer with brain connections changing quality of life of paralyzed

...) are being challenged based on new research on brain-computer interaction. als is a progressive disease that destroys neurons affecting movement. The stud... depressed patients without any life-threatening bodily disease. Only 9% of als patients showed long episodes of depression and most were during the period...

Growth factor stimulates rapid extension of key motor neurons in brain

...n, CSMN axons extend down to the neurons they control in the spinal cord ?extending as far as three feet in adult humans. These neurons degenerate in als and related disorders, and their damage contributes to loss of motor function in spinal cord injuries. Since they are embedded among hundreds of othe...

From a lowly yeast, researchers divine a clue to human disease

... Mutations in the human version of Sen1 are linked to neurological diseases, including a rare form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as als or Lou Gehrig's disease, and movement disorders. By exploring how Sen1 works in yeast, Brow provides a powerful tool other researchers can use to bet...

Human stem cells delay start of Lou Gehrig's disease in rats

...cal connections. Cautioning that clinical applications are still far from possible, Koliatsos hopes to take further advantage of his rodents with als to learn as much as possible about how human stem cells behave when transplanted. ...

Study offers window into human behavior, brain disease

...eurons in the substantia nigra region of the brain deteriorate in Parkinson's disease, motor neurons of the spinal cord and motor cortex degenerate in als and specific memory-forming medial temporal lobe neurons die in early Alzheimer's disease. "We hope to add von Economo neurons to that list," say...

Variations in detoxifying genes linked to Lou Gehrig's disease

...sponsible for a reported twofold increased risk of als in Gulf War veterans. These findings, from a st...gating gene-environment interactions as a cause of als and other illnesses and to the development of mole... the journal Neurology. Siddique is Les Turner als Foundation/Herbert C. Wenske Professor, Davee Depa...

Mechanism for neurodenegerative diseases linked to transport proteins

...erlie several adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington's, als and Kennedy disease. Understanding how this cell transport is blocked in th...known as spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, or SBMA. Like the better-known als and Huntington's, it is a rare but devastating disease, affecting one in 40...

Key stress protein linked to toxicities responsible for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's

...ng, which is currently thought to be a common pathway in the pathogenesis of virtually all neurodegenerative conditions. Such conditions also include als (or Lou Gehrig's disease), Huntington's disease, and many others. Understanding the PDI pathway may lead to the development of new therapeutic approa...

Cyberkinetics, Case to develop system to help restore extremity function

...operate external devices, as well as to operate a prosthetic hand. In a second pilot trial, researchers are testing the BrainGate System in those with als (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease) and other motor neuron diseases. The study is being conducted at Massachusetts General Hospita...

Gradient guides nerve growth down spinal cord

...ury or degenerative disorders," Zou added. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Schweppe Foundation, the Robert Packard als Center at Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago Brain Research Foundation and the Jack Miller Peripheral Neuropathy Center supported this study. ...

Some Brain Cells Change Channels

... prevent the cells from dying. "But that's a big 'if' at this point," says Huganir. The researchers were funded by the Robert Packard Center for als Research at Johns Hopkins, the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Authors on the paper...

Silence the gene, save the cell: RNA interference as promising therapy for ALS

...r, EPFL President and a co-author of the study. als is a progressive neurological disease that attacks... An estimated 5,000 Americans are diagnosed with als every year, and most of these cases are "sporadic", with no identifiable cause. About 5-10% of als cases are inherited. Of these, 20% have been linke...