UB scientist paves way to understanding Lou Gehrig’s disease
MOFEI LIU - Staff Writer
In a groundbreaking scientific paper published in July, Troy Wood, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry at UB, and collaborators from around the country have elucidated some tantalizing clues concerning the underlying cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease.

ALS affects populations from every part of the globe, including the United States. According to ALS Association's website, "approximately 5,600 people in the US are diagnosed with ALS each year. The incidence of ALS (two per 100,000 people) is five times higher than Huntington's disease. and about equal to multiple sclerosis. It is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans may have the disease at any given time."

Wood and 11 other researchers from California Pacific Medical Center, Johns Hopkins University, University of California at San Diego and University of Pittsburgh coauthored the article "Common molecular signature in SOD1 for both sporadic and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis" in the July 24 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The UB professor developed nanotechnology that allowed his colleagues to identify molecular changes marking the onset of ALS.

"My nanoelectrospray device enabled my colleagues to determine that a particular molecular marker is common to all forms of ALS," Wood said. "This molecular feature unifies the two forms of ALS - the genetics-based type known as familial ALS and sporadic ALS, which has no known hereditary component."

According to the ALS Association website, "amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as 'Lou Gehrig's disease,' is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord."

This gradual deterioration in the health and function of neurons decreases the ALS patient's ability to control muscle movement and causes the affected muscle groups to atrophy. The prognosis for the disease is grim; most newly diagnosed patients die within three to five years from respiratory failure, though some patients have been known to survive for up to 20 years.

The cause of ALS has remained mysterious since Jean-Martin Charcot first described the disease in 1869. Lack of techniques to isolate proper samples and small sample sizes often frustrated past efforts to study the devastating illness. Using the nanospray device, Wood and his team were able to measure cerebrospinal fluid samples in the nanogram (a billionth of a gram) range, thereby overcoming these longstanding obstacles.

"In the past, we could not work with so little sample, because our procedures required much larger qualities," Wood said. "Because my device releases the sample in nanoliters per minute, we were able to run the proper tests to analyze the sample qualitatively."

In layman's terms, Wood's nanoelectrospray is a glass tube pulled to a fine point. The tube is coated with an adhesive substance that conducts electricity.

"When an electric current is passed through the tube, the liquid sample in the device flows out at the nanoliter per minute speed," Wood said. "Because this device deals with such small volumes, it is classified as nanotechnology."

Wood's breakthrough has been years in the making. In 1999, he discovered that a chemical called polyaniline, which proved superior to the gold coating being used at the time. He published his findings in the Journal of the American Society of Mass Spectrometry in 2000.

"The old coating of gold was not as adhesive and posed all sorts of problems. This new substance made nanospray technology much more useful to researchers," Wood said.

In a 2003 article in Analytical Chemistry, he described graphite as a cheap alternative to polyaniline.

Wood later founded Nanogenesys, a company located in the UB Technology Incubator, to produce his nanospray technology on a commercial scale.

"I sold this technology to companies and universities around the world and on three continents. However, right now, I am in the process of closing the company. I am looking to partner with an analytical chemistry firm to distribute the technology on an even larger scale," Wood said.

The professor first became involved in ALS research in 2005 at the advice of Bruce A. Holm, Ph.D., senior vice provost and executive director of the Center of Excellence. He has worked in this field ever since.

Wood believes that identification of the root cause of ALS represents the first step in the development of an effective treatment or cure for the disease.

"The nanospray technology has put us on the road to find out how ALS occurs, to discover the origin of the disease," Wood said. "Once a unified understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the disease emerges, it's only a matter of time before somebody finds a treatment or a cure."

http://spectrum.buffalo.edu/article.php?id=32813