Zebrafish Help Canadian Researchers Provide Answers to Cause of ALS

MARKHAM, ONTARIO  June 4, 2013 — Canadian researcher Edor Kabashi of the Université de Montréal has developed the first animal model to study the function of a gene responsible for the highest percentage of ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Results to date shed light on the cause of the devastating disease.
“Our results indicate that [...]

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ALS Breakthrough Underscores Importance of Collaboration to Brain Research

As the result of a major breakthrough by researchers at Northwestern University’s School of Medicine, researchers studying amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, are now one step closer to unlocking the nature of ALS. The recent discovery, which for the first time identified a gene both in motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord affected by ALS, offers a glimpse of hope to those who currently suffer from the deadly disease which rapidly breaks down their bodies while leaving mental capacity intact.

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Pitt Findings on Lou Gehrig’s Disease May Hold Hope

By Kaitlynn Riely for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 26, 2013 •
A person diagnosed this year with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, will receive basically the same prognosis as the New York Yankee did — an average life expectancy of two to five years.
More than 70 years after Gehrig’s death, [...]

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Pitt Team Finds Melatonin Delays ALS Symptom Onset and Death in Mice

Hoping to stop neuron death in ALS just as they did in Huntington’s, the research team treated mice bred to have an ALS-like disease with injections of melatonin or with a placebo. Compared to untreated animals, the melatonin group developed symptoms later, survived longer, and had less degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord.

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Neuralstem ALS Trial Data Presented at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting

“That our cells and method of delivery are safe in ALS patients bodes very well for expanding to other indications. We expect to commence our FDA-approved Phase I trial in chronic spinal cord injury later this year using the same methodology. We want to thank the surgeons at Emory, who developed these techniques, as well as the patients and their families who have taken part in the trial.”

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NEALS SOD1 Research is First Antisense Oligonucleotide Trial for a Central Nervous System Disorder

Antisense Oligonucleotides May be Feasible ALS Therapeutic Strategy

BOSTON, Massachusetts, March 29, 2013 — Published online today in Lancet Neurology, an SOD1-related familial ALS trial under the direction of NEALS researchers Timothy Miller, MD, PhD (Washington University School of Medicine) and Merit Cudkowicz (Massachusetts General Hospital) indicates that antisense oligonucleotide delivery to the central nervous system may [...]

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‘RNA Sponge’ Mechanism May Cause ALS/FTD Neurodegeneration

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have demonstrated that this ALS/FTD mutation may be harmful because it creates an “RNA sponge,” soaking up an important regulatory protein that binds RNA.

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Johns Hopkins Researchers Discover New Clues About How ALS Develops

The researchers also found, to their surprise, that suppressing an ALS-causing gene in oligodendrocytes of mice bred with the disease—while still allowing the gene to remain in the motor neurons—profoundly delayed the onset of ALS. It also prolonged survival of these mice by more than three months, a long time in the life span of a mouse. These observations suggest that oligodendrocytes play a very significant role in the early stage of the disease.

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Cytokinetics Inc. Announces Initiation of First-Time-in-Humans, Phase I Clinical Trial of CK-2127107

Cytokinetics, Incorporated announced today the initiation of a first-time-in-humans, Phase I clinical trial of CK-2127107 in healthy male volunteers. Cytokinetics is developing CK-2127107, a novel small molecule activator of the fast skeletal muscle troponin complex, for the potential improvement of skeletal muscle function in diseases and medical conditions associated with neuromuscular dysfunction, muscular weakness, and/or muscle fatigue. Like tirasemtiv, the lead drug candidate from the company’s skeletal muscle activator program, CK-2127107 slows the rate of calcium release from the regulatory troponin complex of fast skeletal muscle fibers, which sensitizes the sarcomere to calcium.

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Amorfix Announces Progress on ALS Program

TORONTO, Canada, March 20, 2013 /CNW/ — Amorfix Life Sciences announced today that it has furthered the development of the first effective blood test to diagnose amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by cloning ultra-high affinity antibodies that detect a misfolded version of the enzyme superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), which has been implicated  in the development of [...]

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