Catarina Silva,  —

With over three years of experience in the medical communications business, Catarina holds a BSc. in Biomedical Sciences and a MSc. in Neurosciences. Apart from writing, she has been involved in patient-oriented translational and clinical research.

Articles by Catarina Silva

FDA OKs Biohaven’s Sublingual BHV-0223 for Clinical Investigation

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the green light to Biohaven Pharmaceuticals to advance sublingual BHV-0223, which regulates glutamate communication between neurons, into clinical trials for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. The FDA’s  permission to go ahead with the study followed Biohaven’s submission of an investigational new drug…

Understanding How Plants Eliminate Protein Folding Could Help with ALS Research

In some neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), nerve cells fold their proteins incorrectly, leading to cell death. Using plants, researchers discovered that when defective proteins accumulate in chloroplasts – a plant’s cellular compartment where photosynthesis occurs – it generates a distress signal that produces reparative proteins to…

The Positives and Negatives of Feeding Tubes in ALS

Although there’s no cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, managing it wisely can increase survival and improve patients’ and their families’ quality of life. One tool for managing it is a feeding tube. An article in the journal Neurology covered the pluses and minuses of using the tubes in ALS. It…