News

Worldwide Clinical Trials was selected as the Clinical Research Organization (CRO) to run a Phase 3 study of the investigational stem-cell therapy NurOwn for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, which developed NurOwn, expects the collaboration will provide all of the necessary requirements to pursue the placebo-controlled,…

Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America (MT Pharma America) has enrolled more than 700 sites of care in its newly created National Infusion Center Directory to help physicians identify local infusion centers for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients who are prescribed Radicava (edaravone).

Researchers have slowed the progression of an ALS-like disease in mice, and prolonged their lives, by reducing the activity of a protein receptor that helps transmit signals between nerve cells. The study, which involved the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5, or mGluR5, was published in the journal Neuropharmacology. The article was titled “…

Radicava (edaravone), the first approved treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 22 years, is being welcomed with “a great deal of excitement” in the ALS community, an ALS Association executive said. The excitement stems both from Radicava’s potential to treat the disease and the hope that its approval will lead…

Below is a transcript of the ALS News Today interview with Calaneet Balas, executive vice president of strategy for the ALS Association. The nonprofit association, established in 1985, is active in promoting research into ALS, providing assistance to patients through its network of 39 state chapters, and in coordinating care though its…

Edaravone — now more widely known by its U.S. brand name, Radicava — has produced “a minor miracle” for some amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients, said Stephen Byer, co-director of ALS Worldwide. “We have found and continue to find great benefit in terms of slowing, stopping and, in some…

University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania researchers used a cutting-edge technique called cryo-electron microscopy to see how the Hsp104 yeast enzyme breaks up clumps of the misfolded proteins that are hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases like ALS. The resolution that the technique provided was so high that it was close to the level…

Harvard Medical School researchers have discovered how a mutation of the C9ORF72 gene causes the changes in energy production and nerve cell function that are linked to inherited forms of ALS and frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. The mutation produces two toxic proteins that can disrupt the normal processing of genetic instructions,…

Measuring neurofilaments in brain and spinal fluid appears to be a reliable way of confirming an ALS diagnosis, Belgian and German researchers report. This finding is important because it takes an average of a year from the appearance of the first symptoms before doctors can diagnose the disease. The discovery could…

The Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) has awarded BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics a $2.1 million grant to support the development of NurOwn, an innovative mesenchymal stem cell-based platform to treat neurodegenerative diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).