Since 2008, Rare Disease Day — the last day of February — has brought together patients, caregivers, family members, friends, and advocates from around the world to raise awareness and improve equity for the more than 7,000 known rare diseases that affect more than 300 million people. In 2022, the…
Rare Disease Day Events Bring Awareness, Equity to Patients
An experimental antisense oligonucleotide that works to suppress the mutant C9orf72 gene — a cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — safely lowered the production of damaging proteins and other molecules in a patient in a pilot trial. “While other teams have documented that this gene can be suppressed in cells…
During my professional years working in a hospital environment, we had to be familiar with using medical jargon. Some words sounded odd to my nonmedical ears, while others had double meanings. A few favorites I still remember are “idiopathic,” which refers to something with an unknown cause, and “unremarkable,” which…
A mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) carrying a mutation in the SOD1 gene showed alterations in the gut microbiome, followed by motor impairments and defects in enteric nervous system — the gut’s own autonomous nervous system — compared with healthy mice, a study found. These microbiome changes occurred…
The Canadian Neuromuscular Disease Registry (CNDR) and Amylyx Pharmaceuticals are collaborating on an initiative that could produce the first real-world evidence on AMX0035, Amylyx’s investigational therapy to slow functional decline in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. The two, in partnership with neuromuscular centers across Canada, will collect…
More than half of the people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) responding to a survey were dissatisfied with their quality of life and pessimistic about their future. The U.S.-based survey was conducted by ALS News Today. Nevertheless, the vast majority of respondents reported to be satisfied with their…
Columns
Finding the Good in Being
In “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos,” Jordan Peterson writes, “People can survive through much pain and loss. But to persevere they must see the good in Being. If they lose that, they are truly lost.” Now that my husband, Todd, has ALS, I am more attuned…
A team of scientists in the U.K. and Japan has determined the structure of aggregated TDP-43, the protein whose abnormal clumps are characteristic of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Their work, reportedly the first to reveal the molecular structure of aggregated TDP-43, identified a “double-spiral fold” of the protein in patients’ brain…
“Keep off the path, Beware of the gate, Watch out for signs that say ‘hidden driveways.’ Don’t let the chlorine in your eyes, Blind you to the awful surprise, That’s waitin’ for you at, The bottom of the bottomless, Blue, blue, blue pool, You’re livin’ in your own private Idaho.”…
To help support people living with motor neurone disease (MND), a group of disorders that includes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation has donated £100,000 ($135,000) to the MND Association. The association will use the funds to bolster its financial support grant program, which…
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