• Cause of ALS is found, Northwestern team says
    15 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Researchers at Northwestern University say they have discovered a common cause behind the mysterious and deadly affliction of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, that could open the door to an effective treatment. Dr. Teepu Siddique, a neuroscientist with Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine whose pioneering work on ALS over more than a quarter-century fueled the research team's work, said the key to the breakthrough is the discovery of an underlying disease process for all types of ALS. The discovery provides an opening to finding treatments for ALS and could also pay dividends by showing the way to treatments for other, more common neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, dementia and Parkinson's, Siddique said.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/ct-met-northwestern-als-breakthrough-20110822-story.html[/url]
Wonderful news, I never got to know my grandma due to ALS taking her when I was still a kid, so I'm glad this will provide a fighting chance for those suffering from ALS/Parkinsons and Alzheimer's/Dementia. Paralyzation of the body and paralyzation of one's memory are both equally terrifying.
The cause of the illness in question is a breakdown of the process involving the repair or replacement of damaged proteins in brain cell systems. The protein responsible is known as Ubiquilin-2, which has been identified as the root cause of the same process. When the protein can't do its job, this leads to build up of damaged proteins which further down the line causes ALS. Eventually this causes a complete failure of signal transmission, leading to progressive paralysis. There are three known causes; familial (genetic), sporadic (nonhereditary; often spontaneous), and the stuff which directly targets the brain substance, also associated with dementia-type disorders. In any case, it's kind of surprising to note that you could sort of compare this to plaque build up in the walls of arteries, for instance, or the deposition of amyloid proteins in tissues in amyloidosis.
[QUOTE=Sam Za Nemesis;46302108]That didn't take long until the viral hit began seeing some result[/QUOTE] Whatever peoples views on the ice challenge, it [I]did[/I] increase the funding of ALS research exponentially. They were making more money a day than they usually made in a year at its peak. Good will come from that.
Just recently lost my grandmother to ALS/MND. Let's beat this shit.
ALS and MS are one of my greatest fears, so this comes as good news!
Its sad that we can't get results like this for breast cancer as well, seeing as most of the funds are stolen/not put towards the actual cure. People exploit this every year by making their products "pink" and calling it support for breast cancer. Yeah okay. [url]http://vitaminw.co/news/breast-cancer-scams-worst-charities-include-5-pink-types[/url]
[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;46302105]The cause of the illness in question is a breakdown of the process involving the repair or replacement of damaged proteins in brain cell systems. The protein responsible is known as Ubiquilin-2, which has been identified as the root cause of the same process. When the protein can't do its job, this leads to build up of damaged proteins which further down the line causes ALS. Eventually this causes a complete failure of signal transmission, leading to progressive paralysis. There are three known causes; familial (genetic), sporadic (nonhereditary; often spontaneous), and the stuff which directly targets the brain substance, also associated with dementia-type disorders. In any case, it's kind of surprising to note that you could sort of compare this to plaque build up in the walls of arteries, for instance, or the deposition of amyloid proteins in tissues in amyloidosis.[/QUOTE] huh. reminds me of what i've read about prion diseases like fatal insomnia, where a weird misfolded protein causes the part of the brain that handles sleeping to develop lesions until you can't sleep anymore
I really hope this reaches Stephen Hawking before he goes. It just occurred to me, I've never actually heard his "real" voice, and I'd like to.
[QUOTE=TwinkieHouse;46303037]I really hope this reaches Stephen Hawking before he goes. It just occurred to me, I've never actually heard his "real" voice, and I'd like to.[/QUOTE] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJjC9T_k4j4[/media] 3:00ish
[QUOTE=TwinkieHouse;46303037]I really hope this reaches Stephen Hawking before he goes. It just occurred to me, I've never actually heard his "real" voice, and I'd like to.[/QUOTE] Whatever cures there may ever be, I don't think there'll be one that effectively reverses the current effects on the body, only halt them from getting worse. Then again, I don't really know shit.
[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;46302105]The cause of the illness in question is a breakdown of the process involving the repair or replacement of damaged proteins in brain cell systems. The protein responsible is known as Ubiquilin-2, which has been identified as the root cause of the same process. When the protein can't do its job, this leads to build up of damaged proteins which further down the line causes ALS. Eventually this causes a complete failure of signal transmission, leading to progressive paralysis. There are three known causes; familial (genetic), sporadic (nonhereditary; often spontaneous), and the stuff which directly targets the brain substance, also associated with dementia-type disorders. In any case, it's kind of surprising to note that you could sort of compare this to plaque build up in the walls of arteries, for instance, or the deposition of amyloid proteins in tissues in amyloidosis.[/QUOTE] So basically its like the Windows XP registry?
Progress on dementia would be incredible, I lost my great-grandmother of 95 yesterday to it.
wouldnt it be ironic if the cause for als was having too much exposure to cold water
[QUOTE=HookerVomit;46302481]Its sad that we can't get results like this for breast cancer as well, seeing as most of the funds are stolen/not put towards the actual cure. People exploit this every year by making their products "pink" and calling it support for breast cancer. Yeah okay. [url]http://vitaminw.co/news/breast-cancer-scams-worst-charities-include-5-pink-types[/url][/QUOTE] It doesn't help that with a lot of Breast Cancer charities, less than 25% of the money that they have donated goes to research.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.