New Therapy Halts Progression of Lou Gehrig’s Disease in Mice

Researchers announced that they have essentially stopped the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, for nearly two years, allowing the mice to approach their normal lifespan.

Scientists at Oregon State University say the findings are some of the most compelling ever produced in the search for a therapy to help sufferers of ALS, a debilitating and fatal disease.

“We are shocked at how well this treatment can stop the progression of ALS,” said Joseph Beckman, lead author on this study and professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the College of Science at Oregon State University, and principal investigator at OSU’s Linus Pauling Institute.

In decades of work, no treatment has been discovered for ALS that can do anything but prolong human survival less than a month. The mouse model used in this study is one that scientists believe may closely resemble the human reaction to this treatment.

It’s not yet known if humans will have the same response, but researchers are moving as quickly as possible toward human clinical trials, testing first for safety and then efficacy of the new approach, which consists of a compound called copper-ATSM.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-therapy-halts-progression-of-lou-gehrigs-disease-in-mice/