Introducing ALS at present times leads to re-define the concept of motor neuron selectivity which characterizes this disorder. In fact, multiple systems including skin, liver, and bone marrow are altered in ALS patients. The motor neuron is still the focus of the disorder and the extended pathology did not modify the concept of ALS as a devastating disorder based on motor neuron loss. Nonethele...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a heterogeneous neurodegenerative syndrome that has been described in the medical literature for 150 years. Numerous theories of cause and pathogenesis have been advanced but specific mechanisms have not yet been established. What is highly likely is that numerous injurious agents can precipitate the cascade of events that results in this well-known syndrome. In...

Ageing and Neurodegenerative Diseases is an open access multidisciplinary journal, focusing on innovative research advances in the cellular molecular mechanisms underlying ageing process age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, etc., therapeutic interventions this field.

osis are known to have respiratory complications, but these difficulties usually occur late in the course of the disease. A few cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis have been reported in which the original symptom was exertional dyspnea.5 To our knowledge, the two patients in this report represent the first two cases where acute respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation was the ini...

This article briefly describes the already known clinical features and pathogenic mechanisms underlying sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, namely excitoxicity, oxidative stress, protein damage, inflammation, genetic abnormalities and neuronal death. Thereafter, it puts forward the hypothesis that astrocytes may be the cells which serve as targets for the harmful action of a still unknown e...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a common neurological disorder that results in loss of motor neurons, leading to a rapidly progressive form of muscle paralysis that is fatal. There is no available cure and current therapies only provide minimal benefit at best. The disease is predominantly sporadic and until very recently only the Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (Cu,ZnSOD), which is involved ...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by progressive muscular paralysis reflecting degeneration of motor neurones in the primary motor cortex, corticospinal tracts, brainstem and spinal cord. Incidence (average 1.89 per 100,000/year) and prevalence (average 5.2 per 100,000) are relatively uniform in Western countries, although foci of higher frequency ...

Charcot used the term ‘Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis’ (ALS), a description based on clinical and neuropathological features in patients assessed by him and studied at autopsy.1 Lord Brain in 1962 used the term Motor Neuron Disease to encompass entities constituting the other clinical manifestations: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, progressive bulbar palsy, and progressive muscular atrophy.2 Esse...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating paralytic disorder caused by motor neuron degeneration. A subgroup of familial cases arises from mutations in the gene encoding cytosolic superoxide dismutase (SOD1). This review considers insight now being gained into ALS pathogenesis from the study of mutant SOD1 protein and its possible mechanisms of adverse effect on nerve cells. Also dis...