Author Archives: Alice Melão

Athletes who played professional football — known as soccer in the U.S. — are more than three times more likely to die of a neurodegenerative disease than are the general population, a study from Scotland has found. Its researchers compared causes of death over 18 years for about 7,700 former professional…

The non-invasive delivery of ultrasound waves in a controlled, targeted manner can be safely used to open the blood-brain barrier in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), giving temporary access to their motor cortex, results from a first-in-human trial show. The approach — called magnetic resonance guided…

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has approved a new patent application that will allow MediciNova to use its investigational therapy ibudilast (MN-166) for the treatment of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in Canada. The patent covers a wide range of oral ibudilast doses in people…

The REFINE-ALS study, an effort to identify and measure the levels of specific biomarkers in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients being treated for a first time with Radicava (edaravone), has enrolled its first participant, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America (MTPA) announced. This observational trial, sponsored by MTPA — which developed…

The final amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patient treated with oral AMX0035 in the CENTAUR study has completed all scheduled follow-up visits and researchers will now evaluate data collected on the potential treatment’s safety and efficacy, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, its developer, announced. Final results of the Phase 2 study (NCT03127514), which…

The release of fragmented or dysfunctional mitochondria — a cell’s powerhouse — by immune and structural cells inside the central nervous system is a critical step that triggers neuron death and the progression of human neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a study shows.

A detailed analysis of the communication network between nerve and muscle cells in turtles has shed new light on how movement is controlled and maintained. These findings on how motor nerve cells communicate may help scientists better understand the underlying mechanisms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or spinal injury.

A new molecular mechanism that contributes to the death of some nerve cells has been discovered by a team of scientists led by researchers at Oregon State University. The researchers found that blocking a protein called HSP90 can result in the activation of a receptor present in motor…

Being underweight when they start supported feeding puts patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at risk for poor outcomes at later stages of the disease, an Italian study has found. The study, “Nutritional prognostic factors for survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients undergone percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy placement,”…

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by specific changes in brain activity and connectivity, which are associated with motor and cognitive symptoms, an international research team has found. Therefore, measuring the impairment of motor and cognitive networks can be a novel ALS biomarker to evaluate disease progression in clinical trials,…