http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/cause-of-lou-gehrig%E2%80%99s-disease-found/Scientists have identified a common cause for all forms of ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), a fatal neurodegenerative disease that paralyzes its victims.
The discovery by Northwestern University researchers, published in the journal Nature , provides a common target for drug therapy and shows that all types of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are, indeed, tributaries, pouring into a common river of cellular incompetence.
“This opens up a whole new field for finding an effective treatment for ALS,” says senior author Teepu Siddique, a professor of neurology. “We can now test for drugs that would regulate this protein pathway or optimize it, so it functions as it should in a normal state.”
The basis of the disorder is a broken down protein recycling system in the neurons of the spinal cord and the brain. Optimal functioning of the neurons relies on efficient recycling of the protein building blocks in the cells. In ALS, that recycling system is broken. The cell can’t repair or maintain itself and becomes severely damaged.
The discovery of the breakdown in protein recycling may also have a wider role in other neurodegenerative diseases, specifically the dementias. These include Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia as well as Parkinson’s disease, all of which are characterized by aggregations of proteins, Siddique says. The removal of damaged or misfolded proteins is critical for optimal cell functioning, he adds....(more@link)
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
