Participating in the 2017 Annual Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS) meeting in Florida recently, biotech company Oxford BioDynamics presented two different epigenetic signatures for the diagnosis and prognosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The presentation was a result of a prospective study to determine the sensitivity and specificity of two…
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…
A new genome wide association study (GWAS) conducted in multi-ethnic patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has demonstrated that the GPX3-TNIP1 gene locus is significantly associated with ALS. The study, “Cross-ethnic meta-analysis identifies association of the GPX3-TNIP1 locus with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,” was published in…
Research indicates that an injury pathway in fruit fly neurons might be responsible for the loss of synapses in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Findings from the University of Michigan study were published in the open-access journal eLife, titled “Restraint…
While a link between neurodegenerative diseases and cancer seems unlikely, a recent study suggests that such connections might exist. Genetic analysis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients, conducted by Japanese and Taiwanese researchers, revealed that many genes linked to ALS are also related to certain cancers. The research suggests that…
Long-term exposure to air pollution increases the risk of a person developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a Dutch study shows. The study, “Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Netherlands: A Population-based Case–control Study,” appeared in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Scientists say…
Pete Frates, the Boston man who invented the Ice Bucket Challenge that raised millions for ALS, was reported to have kicked the bucket this summer — but it turned out to be a newspaper’s goof. The erroneous report stemmed from a headline in Britain’s Sun declaring that the 32-year-old had died…
Analysis of a large group of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has shown that patients who also have dementia at diagnosis are more likely to have bulbar-onset ALS, a subtype of the disease in which patients first experience symptoms in the head and neck, including trouble speaking or swallowing. These patients also…
AB Science announced that abstracts reporting the use of Kinavet (masitinib) in the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) were selected for oral presentation at six international meetings in 2017. The abstracts include both preclinical and clinical data. The meetings include: XXIII World Congress of Neurology (WCN 2017) in Kyoto, Japan,…
Measuring changes in how humans find their way could enable earlier diagnosis of dementia in neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Alzheimer’s disease, a new review study suggests. The research, “The Aging Navigational System,” appeared…
