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Lyme disease may be a cause of ALS.
People may be diagnosed with both Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Lyme disease. In these cases, adequate treatment for Lyme disease and any other tick-borne disease can lead to slight or even substantial relief from ALS symptoms. For anyone who has been diagnosed with ALS, it may be well worth it to research the possibilities.
Many doctors feel this is evidence that continued treatment in all but bulbar
ALS should be administered and that this research shows this. Had treatment been
longer others may have done well.
Vets at Higher Risk for ALS? - Newsweek
Health - MSNBC.com
<http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15658201/site/newsweek/>
Roberta Friedman, Ph.D., Research Department
Information Coordinator [Quick Summary: A new report from experts convened by the Institute
of Medicine agrees with prior conclusions that U.S. military veterans
appear to have increased risk of developing ALS. The report
recommends additional research to further assess the relationship
between ALS and military service and determine what factors of
military service may cause the disease.] “A diverse panel of experts was able to conclude that existing
evidence supports the increased risk for veterans,” said Lucie Bruijn,
Ph.D., science director and vice president of The ALS Association. “We
intend to continue our efforts to help veterans and to continue to
search for the cause and effective treatment of ALS.” The ALS Association has worked with Congress and the Administration
to increase funding for ALS research, including research seeking to
determine why veterans are at greater risk of the disease. When the
first studies were published that found a link between ALS and service
in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, The Association strongly supported
former Secretary Anthony Principi’s policy to aid Gulf War veterans
with ALS. Under that policy, ALS is considered a service-connected
disease for those veterans who served in the Gulf War between August
2, 1990 and July 31, 1991. However, ALS is not presumed to be a service-connected disease for
the thousands of other veterans diagnosed with ALS even though
research has demonstrated elevated rates of ALS in all veterans,
regardless of whether they served in the 1991 Gulf War. “The IOM’s conclusions help to validate what the ALS community
knows all too well – that if you served in the military, you are more
likely to die from ALS,” said Steve Gibson, vice president of
Government Relations and Public Affairs for The ALS Association. “We
strongly support calls for expanding ALS research at both the
Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense. We also
believe that ALS should be considered a service connected disease
regardless of when a veteran served in the military. And we hope that
the Members of the newly elected 110th Congress will join
our fight in support of all veterans with ALS.” Four studies have found evidence of the increased risk of ALS in
military veterans, both those who served in the Gulf War and those
with any history of military service, the IOM committee reported. The
risk is as much as twice that in the general population. Of particular importance, the IOM reviewed a study conducted by
researchers from Harvard University ’s School of Public Health that
found that veterans who served in the military, whether World War II ,
Korea or Vietnam , are at greater risk of ALS. According to the IOM
report, “[T]he implication is that military service in general – not
confined to exposures specific to the Gulf War – is related to the
development of ALS. The findings, if validated in other studies,
suggest that exposures during military service, even among those with
no wartime service, might be responsible.” The committee called for new, high quality studies to further
investigate the connection between ALS and military service and to
examine those aspects of military service that may cause the disease. Factors that might feed into the increased risk of ALS in veterans
include exposure to lead, pesticides or other environmental contacts,
use of tobacco or alcohol or extreme physical exertion.The ALS
Association has recognized the need for larger population based
studies and is working with Congress to pass the ALS Registry Act (HR
4033/S. 1353), legislation that would establish a national ALS
registry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The
registry would collect data about ALS that could provide vital clues
into the causes of the disease, including why veterans may be at
greater risk. Experts who served on the committee for the report were Richard T.
Johnson, M.D. (chair), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Walter
Bradley, D.M., University of Miami, Florida, Beate Ritz, M.D., Ph.D.,
M.P.H., University of California, Los Angeles, Walter A. Rocca, M.D.,
M.P.H., Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., Jeremy Shefner, M.D., Ph.D.,
State University of New York at Syracuse, and Christina Wolfson,
Ph.D., McGill University, Montreal. A report issued by the IOM in September was unable to find evidence
that supports the idea of a Gulf War Syndrome but did agree that
existing evidence shows increased risk of ALS among Gulf War veterans
(the report is available at
http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3793/24597/36955.aspx). Copies of the latest IOM report, “Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in
Veterans: Review of the Scientific Literature,” are available from the
National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on
the Internet at
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11757. See The ALS Association’s web site under the research tab for
further information about
environmental factors in ALS. Copies of The ALS Association
report: “ALS in the Military: the Unexpected Consequences of Military
Service” also is available at
http://www.alsa.org/files/pdf/ALS_Military_Paper.pdf. For
additional information about The Association’s advocacy efforts to
support military veterans, contact The Association’s Capital office at
202-638-6997. St. Paul, Minn. – New
research finds that veterans of the 1991 Gulf War have developed ALS
(amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) at approximately twice the rate of the general
population, according to two studies in the September 23 issue of Neurology, the
scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. An editorial in the
same issue questions the validity of the results. The studies used different methods
yet arrived at similar results. One study sought to identify all
occurrences of ALS in the military after the start of the Gulf War, and found
that those deployed to Southwest Asia (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Arab
Emirates, Turkey, or on the Red Sea) experienced almost twice the risk of ALS
than those who were not deployed. Out of nearly 2.5 million military personnel,
researchers verified 107 cases of ALS (40 deployed and 67 non-deployed). The
total deployed population (696,118) was less than half the total non-deployed
population (1,786,215). “This study addressed the question,
‘Is there a problem with excessive occurrence of ALS among Gulf War veterans?’,”
said lead study author Ronnie D. Horner, PhD, of the National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “We found the answer to be yes.” Among deployed military, Army and
Air Force personnel appeared to have a significantly higher risk than the other
service branches, but all branches had an elevated risk. As a cross-check of the
findings, the data were also evaluated under numerous “what-if” scenarios. The
consistency of the findings gave the investigators the confidence to conclude
that veterans of the 1991 Gulf War have a higher than expected risk of ALS,
according to Horner. The second study concentrated on age
and found that the rate of ALS in young Gulf War veterans was more than two
times greater than in the general population. Out of approximately 690,000 Gulf
War veterans, 20 ALS cases were confirmed, 17 of whom were diagnosed before age
45. All of the cases had sporadic (non-familial) ALS. “This study focused on people aged
45 or younger because there aren’t enough people over 45 who served in the Gulf
War and have ALS,” said study author Robert W. Haley, MD, of the University of
Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. “ALS is extremely rare in young age
groups. Our findings suggest that some environmental exposure that these
veterans had in the Gulf War greatly accelerated the ALS process so that it
occurred at a much younger age.” Using national death rates, the
study also determined that the rates of ALS in younger age groups remained
stable during the 1990s. Thirteen of the 17 cases younger than 45 were diagnosed
in the second half of the eight-year study period. This suggests that it took
about four years for symptoms of ALS to start appearing, which would explain why
the epidemic curve rose at the end, Haley said. Both studies noted that further
research should be done to identify environmental risks and other factors that
could explain the elevated risk of ALS in Gulf War veterans. An editorial in the same issue of
Neurology cautions against uncritical acceptance of these results. “While a twofold increase in risk
may seem impressive, one needs to realize that this is based upon just a small
number of cases,” said editorial author Michael R. Rose, MD, of King’s College
Hospital in London. “Therefore the calculated risk may easily be changed either
way if the methodology has any flaws.” Unfortunately Gulf War veterans are
too small a cluster for reliably studying possible environmental triggers for
ALS, according to Rose. The studies’ subjects were in different branches of the
armed service, deployed in different parts of the Gulf and possibly exposed – or
not exposed – to several environmental triggers for illness, including ALS,
which makes an accurate search for possible triggers very difficult. Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease,
ALS involves the degeneration of motor neurons which causes muscles to waste
away. Approximately 20,000 Americans have ALS, which is usually fatal within
five years after diagnosis. The Department of Veterans Affairs added ALS to the
list of service-related disabilities in 2001. The study by Horner et al was funded
by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The study
by Haley was supported by a grant from the Perot Foundation. The American Academy of Neurology,
an association of more than 19,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals,
is dedicated to improving patient care through education and research. A
neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and
managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as stroke, Alzheimer's
disease, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, autism and multiple sclerosis. For more information about the
American Academy of Neurology, visit
www.aan.com. - end - What's Old is New Again - Antibiotic Protects
Nerves By Removing Excess Glutamate: National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) What's Old is New Again - Antibiotic Protects Nerves By
Removing Excess Glutamate For release: Monday, February 07, 2005 A new study shows that a common antibiotic used to treat
bacterial infections increases survival rates and delays nerve damage in a mouse
model for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The antibiotic works by
activating or "turning on" the gene encoding the glutamate transporter in
neurons. This finding may lead to new drug treatments for ALS and other
neurodegenerative diseases.
Jeffrey Rothstein, M.D., Ph.D., director of the
The initial focus on antibiotics for ALS resulted from the NINDS-led Drug
Screening Consortium, an effort in which 27 investigators, including Dr.
Rothstein, screened 1040 existing drugs to assess their potential to treat a
variety of neurodegenerative disorders. Co-sponsored by The ALS Association and
two Huntington's disease groups, the purpose of this cooperative drug screening
approach was to use rapid technology to find new uses for existing drugs.
Ceftriaxone was one of the drugs that showed promise for ‘crossing-over' into
neurodegenerative diseases.
The potentially therapeutic properties of ceftriaxone for ALS have little to do
with its antibiotic effects but instead result from its ability to increase the
number of glutamate transporters. Glutamate transporters are proteins that
vacuum up the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Normally, glutamate acts to
excite nerves so that electrical signals can travel from one to the next. Too
much glutamate has a toxic effect on nerve cells and has been implicated in
neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's
disease, epilepsy and stroke. Removing glutamate through the transporter
prevents nerve damage caused by excessive amounts of glutamate. "Increasing the
glutamate transporter expression and removing the excess glutamate is
essentially like turning on a fan to clear a smoke-filled room," says Dr.
Rothstein.
As part of the Drug Screening Consortium, Dr. Rothstein found that 15 drugs from
the penicillin family, named beta lactams, increased glutamate transport in
cultures of spinal cord slices and therefore increased removal of this
excitatory neurotransmitter. Because this class of antibiotics can increase
removal of excess glutamate, researchers hypothesized this could lead to better
drug treatment therapies for neurodegenerative disorders like ALS.
"We're very excited by these drugs' abilities," says Dr. Rothstein. "These
studies show for the first time that drugs, not just genetic engineering, can
increase the numbers of specific transporters in brain cells. Because we study
ALS, we tested the drugs in a mouse model of that disease, but this approach
could be valuable to other conditions. It has potential applications in
numerous neurologic and psychiatric conditions that arise from abnormal control
of glutamate."
As a result of these recent findings, the NINDS will fund a multi-center
clinical trial in ALS patients that is slated to start in spring 2005. The
placebo-controlled clinical trial will determine the safety and efficacy of
long-term ceftriaxone treatment in patients with ALS. "The discovery of new
uses for antibiotics in ALS validates the drug screening approach as a rapid and
effective method of finding new uses for existing drugs," says Jill Heemskerk,
Ph.D., NINDS' program director for the screening program. "There are currently
no effective drugs for these diseases, and the study of compounds identified by
this approach will provide desperately needed inroads into this uncharted
territory," added Dr. Heemskerk.
ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases are currently poorly understood, lack
successful treatments and cause progressive disability in affected patients.
Dr. Rothstein and others in the field believe that having the ability to
selectively target the glutamate transporter will be a powerful tool not only
for treating neurodegenerative diseases but also for developing an important new
class of drugs. Since long-term antibiotic treatment could lead to antibiotic
resistance or toxic side-effects, researchers are working to develop novel, less
toxic drugs that are more selective in removing excess levels of glutamate.
Future research will also test other beta-lactam antibiotics that may be more
effective. If successful, these drugs will shed new light on treatments for
neurodegenerative disorders and help to prevent nerve damage and death in
patients.
The NINDS is a component of the National Institutes of Health within the
Department of Health and Human Services and is the nation's primary supporter of
biomedical research on the brain and nervous system.
References:
*Rothstein JD, Patel S, Regan MR, Haenggel C, Huang YH, Bergles DE, Jin L, Dykes
Hoberg M, Vidensky S, Chung DS, Vang Toan S, Bruijn LI, Su Z-Z, Gupta P, Fisher
PB. "b-Lactam antibiotics offer neuroprotection by increasing glutamate
transporter expression." Nature,
**Miller TM, Cleveland DW. "Treating neurodegenerative disease with
antibiotics." Science,
By Michelle D. Jones-London, Ph.D. March 09, 2005 . |
EMPIRE STATE LYME DISEASE
ASSOCIATION
