Experts Say...

Gene Discovery Could Help ALS Patients

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Scientists are one step closer to understanding how to treat and repair diseases of the nervous system, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

According to a new study, researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Harvard worked together to identify a gene in mice that plays a central role in the proper development of one of the nerve cells that degenerates in ALS.

Continue reading: "Gene Discovery Could Help ALS Patients"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Focusing on glial cells to overcome an intractable disease, ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating disease, gradually causing paralysis of the muscles in the hand and leg. The discovery by Koji Yamanaka and colleagues at the Brain Science Institute that the glial cells cause damage to the nerve cells shows great promise in the development of new treatments to prevent the progression of ALS.

Continue reading: "Focusing on glial cells to overcome an intractable disease, ALS"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

TDP-43 expression in mouse models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and spinal muscular atrophy

Redistribution of nuclear TAR DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43) to the cytoplasm and ubiquitinated inclusions of spinal motor neurons and glial cells is characteristic of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathology. Recent evidence suggests that TDP-43 pathology is common to sporadic ALS and familial ALS without SOD1 mutation, but not SOD1-related fALS cases.

Furthermore, it remains unclear whether TDP-43 abnormalities occur in non-ALS forms of motor neuron disease. Here, we characterise TDP-43 localisation, expression levels and post-translational modifications in mouse models of ALS and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Results: TDP-43 mislocalisation to ubiquitinated inclusions or cytoplasm was notably lacking in anterior horn cells from transgenic mutant SOD1G93A mice.

Continue reading: "TDP-43 expression in mouse models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and spinal muscular atrophy"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Outnumbering Unhealthy Cells with Healthy Ones Helps Sustain Breathing in ALS Mice

GEN News Highlights

Scientists say that transplanting a new line of stem cell like cells into rat models shifts key signs of neurodegenerative disease in general and those of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in particular. They found that it slowed the animals' neuron loss and preserved limb strength and breathing, basically extending life.

Investigators found that it is most beneficial to inject the glial restricted precursors (GRPs) into parts of the cervical spinal cord that control the diaphragm muscles largely responsible for breathing. In ALS patients, the death of motor neurons in this region is known to lead to respiratory decline.

Continue reading: "Outnumbering Unhealthy Cells with Healthy Ones Helps Sustain Breathing in ALS Mice"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Astrocyte replacement shows promise in a rat model of ALS

Stem cell approaches for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases has become a very attractive option. In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the cells affected in the disease, the motor neurons, have extremely long processes that need to be appropriately connected with the muscles they innervate, making motor neuron transplantation a daunting task. Over the past years, however, increasing evidence supports the notion that not only are motor neurons affected in the disease, but their surrounding cells including astrocytes, important cells regulating glutamate concentrations (required for normal function but if abnormally increased become toxic to the cells). In a study published this week in Nature Neuroscience and led by The ALS Association-funded Nicholas Maragakis, M.D., investigators demonstrate in a rat model that a feasible approach to increase survival in these animals is to transplant astrocytes. Although a great deal still needs to be done to apply this approach in the clinic, these studies do provide compelling evidence that this may one day be feasible.

Continue reading: "Astrocyte replacement shows promise in a rat model of ALS"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Gene find sheds light on motor neuron diseases like ALS

Scientists have identified a gene in mice that plays a central role in the proper development of one of the nerve cells that goes bad in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, and some other diseases that affect our motor neurons.

The study is the result of a collaboration by scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center who normally focus on the eye, working together with a developmental neuroscientist at Harvard who focuses on the cerebral cortex. The work appears in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Neuron.

Continue reading: "Gene find sheds light on motor neuron diseases like ALS"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Stem Cells May Act as “Trojan Horse” to Deliver Gene Therapy to Injured Central Nervous System

Newswise — Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) researchers at The Methodist Hospital in Houston have shown that transplanted bone marrow stem cells can attach themselves to injured areas in the brain or spinal cord, possibly providing a way to deliver future gene therapy.

According to Dr. Stanley H. Appel’s study published in the Oct. 14, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, these "Trojan horse" cells may improve the ability to deliver gene therapy to the brain and spinal cord.

Continue reading: "Stem Cells May Act as “Trojan Horse” to Deliver Gene Therapy to Injured Central Nervous System"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

FDA: Statins don't increase ALS risk

Sept. 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it has determined statins do not increase the incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

The FDA's review began in 2007 after the agency received a higher-than-expected number of reports of ALS developing in patients taking statins, cholesterol-lowering drugs. But officials said subsequent data from 41 long-term controlled clinical trials showed no increased incidence of the disease in patients treated with a statin compared with placebo.

Continue reading: "FDA: Statins don't increase ALS risk"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

T-cells Show Promise for ALS, Neurodegenerative Disease Therapies

Newswise — A type of white blood cell that is important to the immune system may provide hope for future new therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), as well as other neurodegenerative diseases, according to a study published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers at The Methodist Hospital in Houston have shown that restoring functional T-cells, an immune system white blood cell, in a mouse model of ALS slows disease progression. T-cells play a critical role in protecting brain cells by enhancing the protective functions of supporting cells of the brain and spinal cord called glia.

Continue reading: "T-cells Show Promise for ALS, Neurodegenerative Disease Therapies"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Research sees new ALS hope

by Jim O'Connell
Wednesday, September 17, 2008

University of Wisconsin researchers have discovered a breakthrough in the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

The team, led by associate scientist Masatoshi Suzuki and neurology professor Clive Svendsen, discovered that the use of certain stem cells in ALS-infected muscles of rats have drastically improved their lifespan.

Continue reading: "Research sees new ALS hope"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Nerve cells grown from new-style stem cells

Ordinary skin cells taken from patients with a fatal and incurable nerve disease have been transformed into nerve cells in a first step toward treating them, US researchers reported. They transformed the cells from two patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, into motor neurons—the cells that waste away and die in ALS. There is no immediate medical use for the cells, taken from two sisters aged 82 and 89, the researchers reported in the journal Science.

Continue reading: "Nerve cells grown from new-style stem cells"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

The ALS Association to Support Trial of Lithium

by Richard Robinson

The ALS Association is funding a major clinical trial to determine if lithium can slow disease progression in patients in the early stages of ALS. The study builds on earlier promising results from preclinical research and a small, open-label investigation in ALS patients.

“Lithium has generated a lot of interest in the ALS community,” according to Lucie Bruijn, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Research and Development of The ALS Association. “This trial is vital for testing the efficacy of lithium in a well-controlled way. It’s the crucial next step for investigating the potential of this drug.”

Continue reading: "The ALS Association to Support Trial of Lithium"
Topic(s):  Clinical Trials

Predicting patient survival from protein stability and aggregation propensity

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known in America as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that has no effective treatment. While it is well known that specific genetic mutations can cause the condition, how the changed genes produce the symptoms has previously been a mystery. A new paper in this week's PLoS Biology, the online open access journal, is able to predict ALS patient longevity to an unprecedented degree based on two properties of the protein SOD1. Jeffrey Agar and colleagues at Brandeis and Harvard Universities show that both the stickiness of SOD1 and its decreased stability accounts for 69% of patient survival data, providing strong evidence that SOD1 protein stability and its aggregation propensity are the main toxic causes of ALS.

Continue reading: "Predicting patient survival from protein stability and aggregation propensity"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Computers Predict ALS

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A technique rarely used to analyze animal behavior may be the next step in fighting the most common motor neuron disease.

Psychologists are using their original data-mining software to detect signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive and fatal disease that attacks the nervous system, before onset of the disease. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Continue reading: "Computers Predict ALS"
Topic(s):  Diagnosis

Harvard, Columbia Researchers Make Stem Cell Breakthrough

Advance will aid search for treatments to a variety of diseases, researchers say

By CLIFFORD M MARKS

Scientists from Harvard and Columbia announced Thursday the creation of the first patient-specific stem cell line from humans afflicted with a genetic disease, a key step in the push to create therapies for a wide variety of illnesses by replacing diseased tissue with tissue generated by stem cells.

The study's two principal authors said in a press conference Wednesday that such treatments remained years away and that the more immediate impact of the disease-specific stem cells will be the ability to study disease progression and test potential treatments in a lab setting.

"We now have in the culture dish cells which have the same genetic makeup as do the ALS patients, and they are the very cells that are affected by the disease." said Columbia professor Christopher Henderson, referring to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative often called Lou Gehrig's Disease. "This provides us with the opportunity...to study these motor neurons derived from the ALS cells."

Continue reading: "Harvard, Columbia Researchers Make Stem Cell Breakthrough"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Protein plays Jekyll and Hyde role in Lou Gehrig's disease

Brandeis study sheds light on ALS

Waltham, MA—Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease caused by the death of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movements from walking and swallowing to breathing. In a groundbreaking study this week in PLoS Biology, Brandeis and Harvard Medical School scientists report key findings about the cause and occurrence of the familial form of ALS.

Continue reading: "Protein plays Jekyll and Hyde role in Lou Gehrig's disease"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Faced With Caregiving, Even Experts Struggle

By Jane Gross

The self-help shelves at big-box book stores are sagging under the weight of how-to books for baby boomers new to the task of taking care of their frail, aging parents. These books touch all the bases: geriatric conditions, housing options, financial and legal matters, caregiver stress, government benefits, shifting family roles, national and state resources, checklists and Web sites. They are inclusive and informative, but a bit chirpy and somehow bloodless.

Sadly, the most compelling narratives on eldercare are hidden away in medical and professional journals. Excruciatingly detailed and heartfelt as only first-person accounts can be, they are written by doctors, nurses, social workers, administrators of nursing homes and the like, all of whom thought they knew everything about America’s flawed and overburdened long-term care system — until they had to navigate it and found themselves just as flummoxed as the rest of us.

Continue reading: "Faced With Caregiving, Even Experts Struggle"
Topic(s):  Caregiving Tips

Umbilical cord blood cell transplants may help ALS patients

Moderate dose proves most effective in mouse model

Tampa, FL (June 24, 2008) – A study at the University of South Florida has shown that transplants of mononuclear human umbilical cord blood (MNChUCB) cells may help patients suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. A disease in which the motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain degenerate, ALS leaves its victims with progressive muscle weakness, paralysis and, finally, respiratory failure three to five years after diagnosis.

Continue reading: "Umbilical cord blood cell transplants may help ALS patients"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

ALS risk has waned among Gulf War veterans

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -The apparent increase in risk of developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, among veterans of the 1991 Gulf War was limited to the decade following the war, a new study shows.

"Recent reports indicate that veterans of the first Gulf War experienced a 2-fold elevated risk of ALS during the decade after the war had ended," Dr. Ronnie D. Horner, of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Ohio, and colleagues write in the medical journal Neuroepidemiology.

Continue reading: "ALS risk has waned among Gulf War veterans"
Topic(s):  Diagnosis

Lou Gehrig's Disease Protein Found Throughout Brain, Suggesting Effects Beyond Motor Neurons

PHILADELPHIA, June 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- Two years ago researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that misfolded proteins called TDP-43 accumulated in the motor areas of the brains of patients with amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease. Now, the same group has shown that TDP-43 accumulates throughout the brain, suggesting ALS has broader neurological effects than previously appreciated and treatments need to take into account more than motor neuron areas. Their article appeared in last month's issue of the Archives of Neurology.

"The primary implication for ALS patients is that we have identified a molecular target for new therapies," says co-author John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD, Director of Penn's Institute on Aging. "The other implication is that new therapies for ALS now need to go beyond treating only motor neurons."

Continue reading: "Lou Gehrig's Disease Protein Found Throughout Brain, Suggesting Effects Beyond Motor Neurons"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Vancouver researchers pioneer safe pathway to slow ALS using stem cells

A unique pilot study has established a safe pathway for using bone-marrow stem cells to slow down and potentially treat Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurodegenerative disease without cure.

The study, published in the journal, Muscle & Nerve and led by Dr. Neil Cashman, professor of neurology at The University of British Columbia and director of the ALS program at Vancouver Coastal Health and VCH Research Institute, tested the use of a growth factor stimulant in ALS patients and found that bone-marrow stem cells became activated with no adverse effects to patients.

Continue reading: "Vancouver researchers pioneer safe pathway to slow ALS using stem cells"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Support cells modify Lou Gehrig's Disease

By Deanna Chieco

Glial cells, the supporting cells of the nervous system, are present everywhere in your brain and spinal cord and help with communication between neurons.

Despite their supportive role in the healthy nervous system, these glial cells can undergo functional changes after a brain injury or during illness that make it harder for the nervous system to heal.

Continue reading: "Support cells modify Lou Gehrig's Disease"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Scientists Develop Yeast-Based Genetic Screen for Protein Linked to ALS and FTD

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have developed a yeast model that can screen for proteins that combat certain neurodegenerative diseases.

Past research has found a number of mutations in a disease protein called TDP-43, which is implicated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and certain types of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the scientists comment.

Continue reading: "Scientists Develop Yeast-Based Genetic Screen for Protein Linked to ALS and FTD"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Formaldehyde Exposure May Increase Risk Of ALS Disease

People exposed to formaldehyde - a chemical used mostly in household products - have increased risk for developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health examined the link between ALS and 12 types of chemicals. Study was initially focused on affect of pesticides and herbicides, but later they found formaldehyde to be increasing the risk for developing the disease.

Continue reading: "Formaldehyde Exposure May Increase Risk Of ALS Disease"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Chemical Exposure May Increase Risk Of ALS, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2008) — Preliminary results show that a common environmental chemical may increase the risk of developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, according to new research.

The study was based on the Cancer Prevention Study II of the American Cancer Society. Over one million people were asked to report their exposure to 12 types of chemicals. The participants were followed for 15 years, and the number of people who died during that time of ALS was tracked. A total of 617 men and 539 women died from ALS during the study.

Continue reading: "Chemical Exposure May Increase Risk Of ALS, Study Shows"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Leaky blood vessels open up nerve cells to toxic assault in Lou Gehrig's disease

Leaky blood vessels that lose their ability to protect the spinal cord from toxins may play a role in the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrigs disease, according to research published in the April issue of Nature Neuroscience.

The results mark the first time that scientists have witnessed molecular changes occurring long before key nerve cells start dying. The unexpected finding opens up a new front in studies of ALS, a disease in which motor neurons in the spinal cord die off for unknown reasons, resulting in dramatically weakened muscles. Patients lose their strength, their ability to move or swallow, and eventually lose their ability even to breathe. Most patients live only a few years after diagnosis.

Continue reading: "Leaky blood vessels open up nerve cells to toxic assault in Lou Gehrig's disease"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

New Gene Responsible For Lou Gehrig's Disease Identified

ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2008) — A team of Canadian and French researchers has identified a novel gene responsible for a significant fraction of ALS (sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) cases. ALS is commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, an incurable neuromuscular disorder that affects motor neurons and leads to paralysis and death within one to five years.

The team identified several genetic mutations in the TDP-43 gene by studying ALS patients from France and Quebec. They established TDP-43 as the gene responsible for up to five percent of the ALS patients.

Continue reading: "New Gene Responsible For Lou Gehrig's Disease Identified"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

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 paper published in the April issue (Volume 8, Number 3) of Journal of Palliative Medicine (www.liebertpub.com/jpm), a peer-reviewed publication of Mary Ann Liebert, Inc (www.liebertpub.com). The paper is available free online.

Continue reading: "Hope among patients with ALS may take a variety of forms"
Topic(s):  Depression

Toxic organophosphates appear to contribute to motor neuron disease

Motor neuron disease is a rare, devastating illness in which nerve cells that carry brain signals to muscles gradually deteriorate.

One form of it, Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), is familiar to the public in the lives of scientist Stephen Hawking and Morrie Schwartz, about whom Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays with Morrie" was written.

For most MND patients, the cause is unknown. Figuring out why these people develop the disease, which causes muscles to weaken, atrophy and cease to function, is an important step in developing therapies to treat or prevent motor neuron disease.

Continue reading: "Toxic organophosphates appear to contribute to motor neuron disease"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Study shows ALS aggregates are composed of only one protein

Washington, Mar 23 (ANI): A new study has provided a big clue to help fight amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), by discovering that the dense protein aggregates that contribute to the nerve decay of ALS are composed of just one protein - superoxide dismutase (SOD1).

Usually familial ALS is characterised by the aggregation of mutated SOD1, a protein that normally protects cells from free radical damage. However, the exact composition of these aggregates is not clear. Thus, identifying the other proteins present and if they are modified in any way could help answer how they form and why they are so toxic.

Continue reading: "Study shows ALS aggregates are composed of only one protein"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Practicing Patients

By THOMAS GOETZ
Copyright 2008 New York Times

Extra Hands strongly encourages people with ALS to participate in PatientsLikeMe. By sharing your medical data you will be adding to the body of knowledge available to others like you, and you will have access to information that can inform your own medical decisions. As in all cases where patients gain access to medical information, we strongly urge you to talk with your doctor before making any changes in your regimen. To find PatientsLikeMe, click here.

Todd Small was stuck in quicksand again. It happened, as always, on the floor of the Seattle machine shop where he worked. His shift complete, Small was making the 150-yard walk from his workstation to his car, when he realized that his left leg was sinking deep in the stuff. Though this had happened before — it happened nearly every day now — he stopped and glanced down at his feet. His Nikes looked normal, still firmly planted on the shop’s concrete floor. But he was stuck, just the same. His brain was sending an electrical pulse saying “walk,” but as the signal streaked from his cerebellum and down his spinal cord, it snagged on scar tissue where the myelin layer insulating his nerve fibers had broken down. The message wasn’t getting to his hip flexors or his hamstrings or his left foot. That connection had been severed by his multiple sclerosis. And once again, Small was left with the feeling that, as he described it, “I’m up to my waist in quicksand.”

Users Profile For the 400,000 Americans with multiple sclerosis, Todd Small’s description will most likely ring true. Muscle stiffness is a hallmark of the disease, and “foot drop” — the term for Small’s quicksand feeling — is a frequent complaint. The condition is usually treated, as it was in Small’s case, with baclofen, a muscle relaxant that works directly on the spinal cord. Every day for 14 years, he took a single 10-milligram pill. “My neurologist always told me if you take too much it will weaken your muscles. So I never wanted to go over 10 milligrams.” It didn’t seem to have much effect, but he carried on as best he could.

Small would have continued just as he was had he not logged on last June to a Web site called PatientsLikeMe. He expected the sort of online community he’d tried and abandoned several times before — one abundant in sympathy and stories but thin on practical information. But he found something altogether different: data.

Continue reading: "Practicing Patients"
Topic(s):  Internet Resources

ALS Aggregates Are Composed of Only One Protein

Researchers have provided a big new clue to help combat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), deciphering that the dense protein aggregates that contribute to the nerve decay of ALS are composed of just one protein: superoxide dismutase (SOD1).

Continue reading: "ALS Aggregates Are Composed of Only One Protein"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Motor Neuron Disease and Toxic Exposure: Possible Link?

University of Michigan scientists have found that people with a form of inherited motor neuron disease have abnormalities in the same gene that appears to be affected in people who suffer nerve damage after exposure to harmful amounts of organophosphates, chemicals used in insecticides and nerve gas.

Continue reading: "Motor Neuron Disease and Toxic Exposure: Possible Link?"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Teva's Copaxone safe but ineffective for ALS patients

The study's primary and secondary endpoints were not met.
by Shiri Habib-Valdhorn

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) today announced that its global phase II GoALS trial found that glatiramer acetate (GA) was was safe and well-tolerated ineffective Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients. However, the trial found that GA was ineffective in reducing functional deterioration in the patients. Although the found that the drug in ALS patients, the study's primary and secondary endpoints were not met. GA is the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Copaxone, Teva's ethical treatment for multiple sclerosis.

Teva VP strategic business planning Aharon Schwartz said, "Like in any clinical trial, there is usually a primary goal and several secondary goals that we try to achieve, which have significance for the clinical condition of the patient and the treatment of the disease. Our primary goal was to examine whether Copaxone could affect the progress of ALS. We deeply regret that we failed to achieve this goal. However, to put things into proportion, in the past 3-4 years no less than eight clinical trials have been conducted, and none of them succeeded."

Topic(s):  Clinical Trials

Gulf War Illness Strongly Linked to Chemical Exposure

By Amanda Gardner
Copyright 2008 HealthDay

MONDAY, March 10 (HealthDay News) -- A new scientific review finds a strong association between exposure to certain chemicals and the Gulf War illness suffered by many veterans.

The class of chemicals, known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), are found in pesticides, nerve agents and in pills given to soldiers to protect against nerve agents. The review, which was conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, looked at 115 papers on the topic.

Continue reading: "Gulf War Illness Strongly Linked to Chemical Exposure"
Topic(s):  Diagnosis

Nerve-tapping neckband used in 'telepathic' chat

Tom Simonite
Copyright 2008 NewScientist.com

A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a "voiceless" phone call for the first time.

With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerised voice.

Continue reading: "Nerve-tapping neckband used in 'telepathic' chat"
Topic(s):  Assistive Technology

Gene newly linked to inherited ALS may also play role in common dementia

By Michael Purdy

Feb. 20, 2008 -- Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have linked a mutation in a gene known as TDP-43 to an inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the neurodegenerative condition often called Lou Gehrig's disease.

Researchers found the connection intriguing because studies by other groups have revealed abnormalities in the TDP-43 protein in both sporadic and inherited ALS, as well as in several other neurodegenerative disorders.

Continue reading: "Gene newly linked to inherited ALS may also play role in common dementia"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Fighting Bedsores With a Team Approach

By AMANDA SCHAFFER
Copyright 2008 New York Times

To understand why some doctors and nurses take bedsores so seriously, it helps to call them by their clinical name: pressure ulcers.

An area of skin breakdown that occurs when sustained pressure cuts off blood circulation — usually in patients confined to their beds in hospitals and nursing homes — a bedsore can result in a wound so deep and painful that some patients require narcotics. If a bedsore becomes infected, the complications can be fatal.

Continue reading: "Fighting Bedsores With a Team Approach"
Topic(s):  Managing Symptoms

Research Suggests New Direction For ALS Treatment

Copyright 2008 Medicalnewstoday.com

A research team from Wake Forest University School of Medicine is the first to show that injections of a protein normally found in human cells can increase lifespan and delay the onset of symptoms in mice with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Reporting in the Nov. 28th issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, the researchers said treatments of recombinant heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) increased total lifespan by 10 percent significantly more than Riluzole®, the only ALS treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They cautioned that while the research suggests a new treatment approach for ALS, it is not ready for studies in patients.

Continue reading: "Research Suggests New Direction For ALS Treatment"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Fresh hope: Drug shows promise for ALS sufferers

by COURTENEY STUART
Copyright 2008 The Hook

In 2004, a small and desperate group of terminally ill patients pleaded with UVA hospital not to pull the plug on an experimental drug they claimed could be their only hope. More than three years later comes the first scientific evidence they might have been right.

In the January issue of the medical journal Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, UVA neurologist and researcher James Bennett has published his first article on his research into the drug known as pramipexole. His findings: the drug is safe, even at higher doses than given to the original group. More importantly, it just might work.

Continue reading: "Fresh hope: Drug shows promise for ALS sufferers"
Topic(s):  Clinical Trials

Happiness and a Trach: They Really Can Go Together

by Jack Orchard, Founder of Extra Hands for ALS
Copyright 2008 Extra Hands for ALS

More than 90% of people with ALS choose not to get a tracheostomy when they lose the ability to get enough oxygen unassisted. Put another way, they'd rather die than use a ventilator. Of course, this choice is a purely personal one which no other person can dictate. But I suspect at least some people opt out of getting a tracheostomy because they think that living with a trach sounds unbearable. While trach management certainly requires some effort and thought, I promise it can be reduced to no big deal. And I know so because I've had a trach for 16 months.

Continue reading: "Happiness and a Trach: They Really Can Go Together"
Topic(s):  Breathing Issues, Caregiving Tips, Managing Symptoms, What to Expect

When the Doctor Becomes the Patient

As the founding director of the ALS Treatment and Research Center at UCSF, I knew something about what to expect when I was diagnosed with the fatal neurodegenerative disease

by Richard K. Olney, M.D.
Copyright 2008 The Journal of Life Sciences

Having made the diagnosis in more than 1,000 people during my career, I knew much of what it meant to receive the news and to live with the disease. Then I made the diagnosis of ALS one last time -- in myself -- before my neurologist confirmed it. What remained for me was to see how helpful the advice I had been giving my patients over the years would be to me and my family, and then to experience actually living with the disease.

Continue reading: "When the Doctor Becomes the Patient"
Topic(s):  Depression, Diagnosis, Facing Death, What to Expect

Targeting Astrocytes Slows Disease Progression In Lou Gehrig's Disease, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (Feb. 4, 2008) — In what the researchers say could be promising news in the quest to find a therapy to slow the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have shown that targeting neuronal support cells called astrocytes sharply slows disease progression in mice.

The study, conducted in the laboratory of Don Cleveland, Ph.D., UCSD Professor of Medicine, Neurosciences and Cellular and Molecular Medicine and member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, will appear in the advance online publication on Nature Neuroscience's website on February 3rd.

Continue reading: "Targeting Astrocytes Slows Disease Progression In Lou Gehrig's Disease, Study Shows"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Lithium slows ALS progression

Copyright 2008 News-Medical.net

Daily doses of lithium, a drug used to treat bipolar disorder, have been found to delay progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in an Italian study of 44 people with the disease.

No other treatment to date has shown such a dramatic effect on this paralyzing and fatal disease of adults, which affects some 30,000 Americans.

Francesco Fornai at the University of Pisa (Italy), with colleagues at the University of Novara (Italy) and the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome, announced their results online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Continue reading: "Lithium slows ALS progression"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

U of I study finds drug prolongs life of mice with ALS

By TONY LEYS • REGISTER STAFF WRITER • January 25, 2008

University of Iowa researchers say they've found a drug that doubles the life span of mice suffering from a form of Lou Gehrig's disease.

The scientists caution that the drug has been tried only on animals with a relatively rare, inherited version of the disease, and they're not sure it would help humans. On the other hand, they say the discovery could be a major step toward a treatment for people afflicted with the condition.

Continue reading: "U of I study finds drug prolongs life of mice with ALS"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Scientists Discover Why Animal Studies May Lead to Ineffective ALS Drugs

Study Recommends Guidelines for Using Leading Mouse Model of ALS

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- A five-year study of more than 70 drugs, many with reported survival benefit in a mouse model of the inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease, concluded the apparent positive effects were largely due to previously unrecognized variables in the study design, scientists reported today. The study included the drug riluzole, the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for ALS treatment.

Continue reading: "Scientists Discover Why Animal Studies May Lead to Ineffective ALS Drugs"
Topic(s):  ALS Research

Mayo Clinic study unveils unprecedented method to predict ALS, Parkinson's disease

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A new Mayo Clinic study details an unprecedented method to predict brain aging disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease) and Parkinson’s disease. Investigators studied common variations within axon guidance pathway genes and identified several gene variations (DNA fingerprints) that collectively predicted people who are at a high risk for ALS (2,000 times greater than the average risk). They also identified several gene variations that collectively predicted people at a high risk for Parkinson’s disease (nearly 400 times greater than the average risk).

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Topic(s):  Diagnosis

Monkey’s Thoughts Propel Robot, a Step That May Help Humans

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
Copyright 2008 New York Times

If Idoya could talk, she would have plenty to boast about. On Thursday, the 12-pound, 32-inch monkey made a 200-pound, 5-foot humanoid robot walk on a treadmill using only her brain activity.

She was in North Carolina, and the robot was in Japan.

It was the first time that brain signals had been used to make a robot walk, said Dr. Miguel A. L. Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University whose laboratory designed and carried out the experiment.

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Topic(s):  Assistive Technology

Stems of Hope for Treating Incurable Diseases

Two Professors at the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem have succeeded in improving the condition of MS and ALS patients by using stem cells transplants. The researchers extracted stem cells from each patient's bone marrow, cultured them, and then injected them into the patients' spine. The encouraging results of this small clinical study may give hope to those who suffer from these incurable diseases, as well as to researchers developing stem cells techniques for treatment of other diseases.

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Topic(s):  ALS Research

Leo Greene: Diagnosis brings on isolation

By Leo Greene, Staff Writer
Copyright 2008 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

With the diagnosis, everything changed. I stepped out of that doctor's office into a kind of dark comedy of errors. The faces remained familiar. But the people I knew took on the mannerisms of strangers.

Now that my condition was terminal, many were hesitant to approach. Most who did seemed uneasy or downright spooked. They resorted to clichés delivered with awkward or strained sincerity.

One person would lean in and with a throaty and hammed-up earnestness ask, "How are you?"

I wanted to run. The problem was, many had already beaten a path to the exit.

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Topic(s):  Isolation