BAD NEWS FOR DRUG STUDY

A team of researchers has made a controversial assertion on why a drug trial for people with Lou Gehrig's disease had disappointing results: The scientists may have been targeting the wrong disease.

If the researchers are right, untold millions have been spent since the mid-1990s on research with little connection to a cure for the deadly illness, formally called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The drugs in the trial and others were chosen because they had improved symptoms in mice with rare mutations linked to the disease.

But this spring, researchers identified abnormal protein clumps in patients with all forms of the disease, with one glaring exception: those who had the rare mutations. So they believe that that rare type of the illness, which accounts for 1 to 2 percent of cases, is likely not representative of the disease as a whole.

The ensuing months have drawn reactions ranging from eager curiosity to bitter skepticism from those in the field. Critics argue -- and the paper's authors agree -- that more lab work is needed to prove that the newfound protein is a key to the disease and not just a red herring.

http://www.startribune.com/722/story/1409384.html