The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given positive feedback to MediciNova’s Phase 3 developmental plan for its investigational therapy ibudilast (MN-166) for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Following the FDA’s guidance and suggestions, the company will design a trial that determines the maximum benefit of the treatment,…

Treatment with EHP-102, an investigational cannabinoid-derived medicine, reduced weight loss, preserved motor neurons of the spinal cord, and lowered the abnormal reactivity of astroglial cells in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), new research shows. Findings were recently published in the study, “Neuroprotective effects of…

The pharmaceutical development company Noxopharm and its majority-owned subsidiary, U.S. biotechnology firm Nyrada, have discovered a potent inhibitor of the protein IRAK4, a “master switch” critical to the development of inflammatory autoimmune diseases, such as amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). IRAK4 has emerged as a key switch in the…

Specific patterns of a misfolded protein — superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) — are found in the brain and spinal cord of patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a new study, supporting research suggesting that misfolded SOD1 plays a role in this ALS subtype. The research, “…

Adding Azilect (rasagiline) — a medication already approved to treat Parkinson’s disease — to Rilutek (riluzole) may be able to slow the advancement of fast-progressing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a Phase 2 trial suggests. However, its positive safety results are being challenged by other physicians, who raise concerns that…

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are caused by different patterns of inflammation in the brain, which may help explain why these two illnesses are so distinct. The German study, “Different neuroinflammatory profile in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia is linked to the…

My first symptomatic expression of ALS may have been as I left a football game. I fell flat on my face. At the time, I blamed it on the sun and the beer, although that combination in the same dosages had not felled me before. Shortly after, I became prone…

A newly developed method can help characterize the types of misfolded proteins present in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to findings in a thesis. The recently published doctoral thesis, titled “Structural investigation of SOD1 aggregates in ALS: identification of prion strains using anti-peptide antibodies,” was written…

Retrotope is providing its investigational fatty acid being developed for Friedreich’s ataxia, RT001, to people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) under an expanded access program, also called “compassionate use.” Individual patients with life-threatening or severely debilitating diseases can petition the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, through their physicians,…

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis’ toll on the thinking abilities and behavior of patients is as progressive and damaging as the disease’s physical toll, researchers in the U.K. report, with  ALS-specific cognitive and behavioral deficits showing an impact even in early stages and worsening as the disease advances. ALS is characterized by the…