RespiteMatch.com Health Blog

Roberta Friedman, Ph.D., ALSA Research Department Information Coordinator

While this summary is not exhaustive, it does include some of the most recent advances. If you would like certain news items featured, please contact the Research Department at researchgrants@alsa-national.org.
Spine Infusion of IGF-1 Promising in Pilot Trial

A few patients with ALS received infusion of the helper molecule IGF-1 into the fluid surrounding their spinal cords in a small pilot study in Japan. The results show the treatment is safe and warrants further investigation, as reported by the researchers led by Koji Abe, M.D., Ph.D. at Okayama University. Their findings were published in October in Neurological Research. The best dose needs to be determined and any efficacy explored further before the potential of this infusion route of IGF-1 treatment for ALS can be confirmed. This team had also published details on the molecular signals that IGF-1 activates to help motor neurons survive, using an animal model of ALS, in November in the Journal of Neuroscience Research. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16197815

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16235250

Sertoli Cells Aid ALS Mice

Researcher Jeffrey Rosenfeld, M.D., Ph.D. at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte and colleagues reported in December in Experimental Neurology that cells from the testis can help motor neurons survive. The findings are in mice with the mutation in copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) linked to some inherited forms of ALS. Placing the Sertoli cells from the testicles into the spinal cord prior to symptom onset resulted in survival of more motor neurons at the end stage of disease, as compared to the other side of the spinal cord that was not treated with the cell implant. Sertoli cells have been proposed as nurse cells in other disorders, as they are able to secrete a variety of supportive molecules. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16242126

Cannabinoid Delays Onset in ALS Mice

The onset of symptoms is delayed by a molecule found in marijuana, but the treatment did not change survival in mice that model ALS. Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle treated SOD1 mutant mice with cannabinol, which does not have mind altering effects. Symptoms started two weeks later than in untreated mutant mice, but all mice died at about the same time after onset of their disease, reported Michel Kliot, M.D., and collaborators in September in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Other Motor Neuron Disorders.The potential for cannabis derivatives to serve as successful treatment for ALS is unclear; also see report from the December ALS/MND conference in Dublin.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16183560

Minocycline in Pilot ALS Trial Safe with Riluzole

An Italian team reported that the combination of minocycline with riluzole is safe in a report published in October in Neurological Sciences. In a pilot trial, the investigators led by Francesco Pontieri, M.D. at the University of Rome observed respiratory function and used the ALS Functional Rating Scale over the six months of the study in 20 patients. Whether the treatment improves ALS must still be determined.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16193258

Minocycline also was able to reduce the release of mediators of inflammation from microglia in the lab, as did tetracycline. The glia had been stimulated with proteins related to Alzheimer’s disease. These findings will be published in Glia in February by researchers in the Netherlands led by Robert Veerhuis, Ph.D. at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Neurosciences in Amsterdam.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16220550

Glutamate Receptor: Possible Marker of ALS in T Cells?

Greek researchers published in December in Annals of Neurology that cells in the blood of ALS patients reflect a defect in glutamate transmission that might allow investigators to follow the disease and check effects of candidate therapies. The team led by Demetris Vassilopoulos, M.D., Ph.D. at the University of Athens found that the level of messenger RNA (mRNA) directing construction of one of the glutamate receptors is decreased in immune (T) cells circulating in the blood stream of 20 ALS patients as compared to healthy controls. Only mRNAs coding for the glutamate receptor called the glutamate 2 receptor were decreased. Further studies will need to confirm and extend this finding before it can be used clinically. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16240362

Questions on Role of Glutamate Receptor in ALS

Further findings that link this glutamate receptor with the disease process in ALS were published January in Neuroscience Research by Japanese researchers led by Shin Kwak, M.D., Ph. D. at the University of Tokyo. Apparently the glutamate receptor 2 that responds to the glutamate nerve cell message has mistakes that appear to be introduced in the instructions for its construction as read from the DNA. But the Japanese team found proper editing of the message for the glutamate 2 receptor, both for rats with mutant SOD1, and in human patients with spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy. There could be differences in the motor neuron diseases that might be important for considering any therapeutic approaches.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16225946

Imaging Method Can Distinguish ALS from Other Motor Disorders

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) can tell apart patients with ALS from patients with another motor disorder called progressive muscular atrophy, according to findings published by Italian investigators in October in Radiology. Luigi Murri M.D. and collaborators at the University of Pisa used measures to detect diffusion along and across the fiber tracts coming down from the brain through the spinal cord. They did this with a special technique applied to the MRIs of a small number of patients. One of the measures changed in ALS patients but not in the patients who did not have ALS. This difference indicates a change in the nerve tracts descending from the brain. Further, certain values derived from the imaging technique correlated with disease severity and duration in ALS, lending hope that this type of imaging might be able to monitor disease progression and aid testing of candidate treatments in clinical trials. More patients would need to be tested to verify the findings.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16183935

Confirmation of RNA Inhibition (RNAi) as Possible ALS Strategy

In December’s Journal of Biological Chemistry, Japanese researchers confirmed the ability of RNAi to slow the progress of symptoms in mice modeling ALS. The researchers created mice carrying a gene that shut down the production of SOD1 by means of a small interfering RNA. They then bred these mice to ones with mutant SOD1. Halting production of the mutant SOD1 protein prevented the disease in the mice as reported by the team led by Hidehiro Mizusawa, M.D., Ph.D. at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University. The RNA inhibition strategy differed from that reported earlier, but both succeeded, supporting the hope that the general strategy will prove useful as a therapeutic approach to inherited ALS due to SOD1 mutation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16221675

A way to use RNA interference as a gene knock out approach in mammalian systems is meanwhile proposed by Zuoshang Xu, M.D., Ph.D. and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester in a January publication in the Public Library of Science Genetics. They suggest that the RNAi technique can be used to generate models of disease such as ALS in different species in order to better understand the disease process and devise candidate treatment strategies.
http://genetics.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.0020010.eor

Mitomycin C Reduces SOD1 by Nonspecific Cell Toxicity

Researchers led by Robert Brown Jr., D.Phil., M.D. at Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown, Mass. showed an apparently helpful action of a compound called mitomycin C is unlikely to prove of therapeutic value. The treatment succeeds in reducing the amount of SOD1 mutant protein in a lab test related to aspects of ALS, but the effect is most likely due to a generalized toxin action on cells. When given to rodents directly into the brain, the compound failed to produce any decline in SOD1 levels. These cautionary findings were published in Neuroscience Letters in January and speak to the pitfalls in designing new therapies for the disease.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16242241

Details of Neuron Demise in ALS Model

Dick Jaarsma, Ph.D. Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands and colleagues published in October in the European Journal of Neuroscience detailed observations on ’sick’ motor neurons in a mouse model of ALS. They found that motor neurons in these mice experience a prolonged sick phase prior to their death and disappearance. The stressed cells pile up material marked for disposal by ubiquitin, first in the endings of their fibers and then in the cell body. Following is a disintegration of the cell structure called the Golgi and the activation of stress factors such as the transcription protein, ATF3. Subsequent changes in the cell body include the flattening of the nucleus and the appearance of heat shock proteins. This accounting of the demise of motor neurons in the mouse model should help focus on the key events that can be targeted by therapeutic strategies.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16262628&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum

Proteasomes Pumped up in ALS Model

The proteasomes that handle cell trash appear to be revved up in a model of ALS, the mouse with the SOD1 mutation. Proteasomes show increased activity specifically in the spinal cord, according to a report by researchers led by Jeffrey Elliott, M.D. at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center in Dallas in December in Experimental Neurology. Further, the change is apparent only in the astrocytes and microglia and not in spleen or liver. Certain sub-units of the large protein complex that make up the proteasome appear in increased amounts in the SOD1 mice as compared to control mice. The components that are increased are those that respond to mediators of inflammation. These findings suggest how inflammation and destruction of protein may interact to produce ALS or may simply reflect the ongoing disease process.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16242125

Chaperones and ALS

Molecules that guide protein folding and destruction inside cells, called chaperones, are also implicated in ALS. One chaperone, called the glucose-regulated protein 78/BiP (GRP78), is located within the endoplasmic reticulum, the protein assembly line. This chaperone appears trapped inside the abnormal clumps of protein in sick neurons in the spinal cords of SOD1 mutant mice, according to a report by Japanese researchers led by Hirofumi Kusaka M.D., Ph.D. of Kansai Medical University in Osaka, as published in December in Acta Neuropathologica. The chaperone’s distribution mirrored that of SOD1, supporting a suspect role for this chaperone in the disease.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16231159

Mutant SOD1 Stability and ALS: Prognosis and Disease Process

Mutant SOD1 proteins present in the red blood cells of ALS patients can hint at how the disease will progress. If the mutant protein is very unstable, that is, if it is less likely to be detectable in the cells, the patient is likely to have shorter survival. These findings were reported in December in Neurology by an international team led by Yoichi Yamamoto, M.D., Ph.D. of Osaka University, Japan. But, the researchers noted, there are exceptions to this apparent rule. Some patients live a decade or more with their disease despite an unstable variant of the SOD1 protein. No one knows if making the mutant SOD1 protein stable, that is, remain longer in cells, might provide a way to treat the disease.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16291929

Another take on the stability of mutant SOD1 is the tendency of the changed protein to unravel or to arrange itself incorrectly. The ability of a cell to keep a protein properly folded or to recognize and get rid of defective protein plays into diseases such as ALS that appear later in life and are linked to deposits of damaged protein inside cells. Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Ph.D. at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. and colleagues studied the properties of folding proteins and concluded that the success of defense systems inside cells have key implications for whether the disease develops. Their findings using mathematical modeling are reported in February in Biophysical Journal.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16299080&query_hl=14&itool=pubmed_docsum

A third report on mutant SOD1 proteins also models how the various mutations in the protein linked with ALS cause the protein structure to change, as published in the Journal of Molecular Biology in January by Canadian researchers at the University of Waterloo, Ontario led by Elizabeth Meiering, Ph.D.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16307756

Stem Cells Integrate Into Brain after Transplant

Researchers at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif. showed that human embryonic stem cells can integrate into the brain and make connections after they are placed into fetal mice. According to findings published by Fred Gage Ph.D. and colleagues online December 13 in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the stem cells formed neurons and glia that had the same appearance as the surrounding mice brain cells. The connections to surrounding mouse neurons also appear to be normal. No tumors resulted from the stem cell grafts. The experimental procedure results in a model system that should prove useful for drug design for neurodegenerative disease with the potential to accelerate testing of candidate therapies.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16352714&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum

Neural progenitor cells derived from human embryonic stem cells also can integrate into brain and function, as published December 15 in Gene Therapy by University of Wisconsin researcher Clive Svendsen, Ph.D. and collaborators. These investigators had engineered the progenitors to produce the helper molecule called glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) so that the cells would pump out this trophic factor after transplant. In mice that modeled Parkinson’s disease, the cell grafts produced new nerve fibers that grew into the damaged part of the brain responsible for the symptoms of this motor disorder. Also, some success was achieved in placing these engineered cells into aged monkeys. The findings give hope that repair of damaged structures in the central nervous system can be carried out by engineered stem cells that serve as delivery vehicles for nurturing molecules, a strategy this team is exploring for ALS. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16355116&query_hl=7&itool=pubmed_docsum

Are SOD1 Mutant Mice Smarter?

The SOD1 mutation in mice modeling ALS may give them an advantage at spatial tasks prior to their loss of motor function. The transgenic mice used to model the disease appear to have better spatial memory through the brain structure called the hippocampus. This odd finding in fact may tie in with ideas on how the transmitter glutamate is involved in the disease process and may help explain the cognitive loss that can accompany the disorder in some patients. Italian researchers led by Martine Ammassari-Teule, Ph.D. of the IRCCS S. Lucia Foundation in Rome published these intriguing findings in February in Experimental Neurology.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16309674

For a copy of a news item, contact the Research Department at researchgrants@alsa-national.org

The ALS Association, National Office
27001 Agoura Road, Suite 150
Calabasas Hills, CA 91301-5104
Phone: (818) 880-9007
Fax: (818) 880-9006

Since its founding in 1985, The ALS Association has increased its investment in research grants. Of the more than $25 million raised during the last decade in the quest to unlock the mysteries of ALS, each dollar has gone directly to investigators doing the research. www.alsa.org/research.

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