A new patient-reported way of measuring shortness of breath in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), called the Dyspnea-ALS-Scale or DALS-15, can help doctors identify people who would benefit from noninvasive ventilation, even when their lung function and blood gas tests do not indicate it. DALS-15 also can be…

Differences in how efficiently nerve cells degrade and discard proteins may explain why some motor neurons better resist a buildup of toxic proteins than do others in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a study in mice. The study, “Stem cell-derived cranial and spinal motor…

People who have a high body mass index or gain weight as they age may be at a lower risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a large population study done in Norway. Those who were obese or got heavier through time had a more than 30 percent…

Copper-ATSM — a compound originally used as an imaging agent — prevented motor neuron loss and reduced brain inflammation in a mouse model of sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a study showed. The study, titled “Neuroprotective effect of CuATSM on neurotoxin-induced motor neuron loss in…

A Phase 2b clinical trial assessing the efficacy and safety of H.P. Acthar Gel, an experimental injectable therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), has enrolled half of its anticipated participants so far and is still open for recruitment. The trial, called PENNANT (NCT03068754), intends to enroll roughly…

Scientist Jingsong Zhou, PhD, has received a $2.88-million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) affects multiple organs beyond the central nervous system (CNS). “We are ultimately working to find some potential therapeutic means to treat the disease with a…

Vitamin D supplementation can help overcome low levels of the vitamin often detected in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Still, such an alternative therapeutic approach has no meaningful clinical effect on progression of ALS-associated motor symptoms, a study suggests. The study, “…

High glucose levels might compensate for the toxic effects of an accumulation of TDP-43 — a widely expressed nuclear protein that binds both DNA and RNA — and protect neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a study in a fly model of the disease suggests. The study,…

Researchers doing early-stage investigation into potential new ways to halt neuron death seen in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have received a grant from the Alabama Power Foundation. Rita Cowell, PhD, a researcher at Southern Research’s Drug Discovery division, and her team have identified certain compounds that in lab…

Scientist Manish Arora, PhD, received an $8 million Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to develop models to predict and possibly prevent diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Arora and his team developed the Biodynamic Interface, which proposes an interplay…