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Scientists are honing in on Lou Gehrig’s disease
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Scientists developed promising leads in tracing the genetic roots of Lou Gehrig’s disease using state-of-the-art biochip technology.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University identified 34 possible genetic leads, which may help future researchers develop therapies for the degenerative nerve disease formally called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Some of those links could be coincidence, and a second study is in the works to refine them, said Dr. Bryan Traynor, co-investigator in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Department of Neurology.
“Although we haven’t located the exact gene responsible for sporadic ALS, our results seriously narrow the search and bring us that much closer to finding what we need to start developing treatments for the disease,” he said. “I hope to at the end of the day be able to walk away with a few genes I can say are definitively linked with ALS.”
The disease attacks nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, leading to paralysis and death, according to the ALS Association, which helped fund the study. Although late-stage patients may become paralyzed, their minds remain unaffected.
Researchers used biochips to analyze the entire genome of 276 adult male and female subjects with sporadic ALS and 271 adult male and female subjects with no trace of neurological disease. Their work was published this week in the online version of Lancet Neurology.
At least five genes responsible for inherited forms of ALS — 5 percent of all cases — have been known since the 1990s. Until this study, no genetic roots were identified for sporadic ALS, which occurs in people without a family history of the disease.
The large volume of possible genetic culprits has a lot to do with the advanced technology returning more results than conventional genetic typing, Traynor said.
Comments from Examiner Readers
9:26 AM MST on Wed., Sep. 17, 2008 re: "Creatine could help in Parkinson’s fight"
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2:20 PM MST on Sun., Feb. 10, 2008
re: "Inmate gets drunk on hand sanitizer"
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6:48 PM MST on Wed., Aug. 8, 2007
re: "Inmate gets drunk on hand sanitizer"
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8:24 AM MST on Sun., Jun. 10, 2007
re: "Inmate gets drunk on hand sanitizer"
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Examiner Reader said:
I know how it works. Creatine ups ATP which inturn stops the hyperpolarizing of brain cells by leptin. MTGDGW
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Examiner Reader said:
Your alcohol facts are not quite straight. You mentioned Avant Hand Sanitizer- it has denatured alcohol. The denaturing process adds a bitter agent- it make sit taste horrible- definitely not a vodka type drink. That is why alcohol is denatured- to avoid abuse like this. It will likely make you vomit.
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Examiner Reader said:
Former Minneapolis Fire Chief: A First Responder in I-35W Bridge Collapse; Coordinates Helping Hand Contribution of Soapopular Hand Sanitizers For EMS Workers For Immediate Release Minneapolis, MN, Aug 8, 2007-- Former Minneapolis Fire Department Chief Bonnie Bleskachek, an embattled hero to many in the Minneapolis community, hasn't allowed recent personal controversy to stand in the way of helping Minnesota citizens in times of crisis. Since the August 1 catastrophe first occurred, Bleskachek has been working tirelessly by coordinating volunteer and emergency supply logistics, and she was the first to respond to an unsolicited call from a Connecticut company offering to contribute a shipment of Soapopular, a new, alcohol-free hand sanitizer, for emergency workers at the disaster scene.
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Examiner Reader said:
Hand-Sanitizer=Alcohol Poisoning.. As inane as the subject might seam, the exponential growth in the use of hand sanitizer products over the past few years has lead to an ever-increasing number of alcohol-poisoning instances--and too many within school/educational settings. Most recent report was two weeks ago in Hartford CT, where second grader, overloaded her hands from a Purell bottle on her teachers desk ,then licked it off--and was soon rushed to Yale University Hospital and diagnosed with alchohol poisoning. Thank goodness that some new manufacturers, including Soapopular--which offers a full line of Alcohol-FREE hand sanitizing products, are now getting retailers to put their products on their shelves. Soapopular, which is Canada's leading brand in the alcohol-free segment, made its debut last week here in the US.
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