Weitzmann Institute Researchers Identify Defensive Gene Linked to Lou Gehrig’s Disease

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease after the US baseball player who contracted it in 1939) is an incurable neurological condition that affects about one in 50,000 people. It gradually paralyzes patients, halting the ability to speak, eat, move and even breathe. A research team headed by Prof. Eran Hornstein of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and colleagues in the molecular neuroscience and molecular genetics departments have linked a new gene to ALS. It contains mutations that seem to play a defensive, rather than an offensive, role.
 
Note: Renowned scientist Stephen Hawking (pictured) suffered and eventually died from Lou Gehrig’s disease.
 
Quote: “The Rehovot scientists focused on a gene called IL18RAP, long known to affect microglia (cells in the brain and spinal cord that remove damaged neurons and infections) and found that it can contain mutations that mitigate these cells’ toxic effects. ‘We have identified mutations in this gene that reduce inflammation,’ Dr. Chen Eitan said.”
 
Source: Introduction and quotation from The Jerusalem Post
 
Learn more about ALS (Lou Gherig’s Disease) from Wikipedia. ►
 
Read “Weizmann Institute researchers discover new Lou Gehrig’s disease neural pathway” ►
 
Photo: Medical Daily
 
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