Profs Are Near Cure for ALS

Published On Wednesday, October 10, 2007 2:05 AM

By MAEVE T. WANG


Researchers at the Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Quebec’s Laval University said they are on the verge of finding a vaccine for the inherited form of Lou Gehrig’s disease, a condition in which a mutated protein destroys a person’s capacity for muscle control.

The work conducted by Robert H. Brown Jr., associate professor at HMS, and Jean-Pierre Julien, a research chair at Laval University, is part of a growing trend in the search for vaccines against genetic diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases.

Instead of inserting an active version of the harmful protein to stimulate a person’s immune response, as common vaccines do, this novel vaccine will directly introduce antibodies into the body that attack the mutated protein responsible for the disease.

Lou Gehrig’s disease, technically known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is a condition in which a mutated protein destroys motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord.

Over 30,000 of Americans have the illness which can lead to muscle atrophy and possibly death, according to the ALS Association’s website.

Brown and Julien said they plan to find the most effective antibody to treat mice afflicted with ALS before altering it slightly for human treatment.

According to Julien, the cross-border collaboration is the fastest way to bring the vaccine into the clinical trial stage.

So far, the duo’s research has yielded that ridding the body of the toxic SOD1 protein present will significantly help those suffering from the inherited form of the illness.

“If one diminishes the burden of this sick protein, one can both delay the disease and reduce its severity,” Brown explained.

Although the inherited form of Lou Gerhig’s only accounts for 5 to 10 percent of ALS cases, Brown and Julien’s research into finding a vaccine may also apply to treating non-genetic forms of the disease, which account for over 90 percent of all cases.

“The same protein may in fact have more of a role than we thought in other kinds of ALS,” Brown said.

“Our research may be a little more broadly applicable than we thought originally.”

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