Possible Gene Found for Lou Gehrig's Disease

Reuters ^ | Sun Jul 6, 2003

[presidio9]

European researchers said on Sunday they had identified a new gene that, when mutated, almost doubles the risk of developing a paralyzing disease.

People with the mutations had 1.8 times the risk of developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as motor neuron disease or Lou Gehrig's disease (news - web sites), they found.

Peter Carmeliet of the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology in Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues also found that mice bred with a similar mutation were unusually prone to paralytic disease.

The gene they looked at, VEGF, had not previously been associated with ALS, which affects between 1 and 2 in every 100,000 people around the world.

ALS usually develops after age 50, causing gradual weakness, then paralysis and death. There is no cure, although some people progress more quickly than others.

Carmeliet's team had found that mice with a defective version of VEGF, which caused their bodies to produce less VEGF protein than normal, developed a disorder similar to ALS.

They looked at samples from 1,900 people from Sweden, Belgium and Britain and found those with certain mutations of VEGF produced low levels of the protein, too -- and had a 1.8 times higher risk of ALS than the general population.

Furthermore, when they gave VEGF to mice with artificially induced ALS symptoms, the mice got better, they reported in the journal Nature Genetics.

The findings suggest that VEGF plays a role in ALS, they wrote. "The findings also raise the intriguing question whether more long-term treatment with VEGF might delay the onset or slow the progression of adult-onset motoneuron degeneration as well," they wrote.

VEGF, short for vascular endothelial growth factor, is known to play an important role in blood vessel growth and development, so the finding may also shed light on the underlying causes of ALS.

[norraad]

..Did you know Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig's disease?

What are the odds of that!"

- I forget the comics name -

[presidio9]

ALS is no laughing matter, but when I told my gandmother that my friend had "Lou Gehrig's Disease" her response was "But he didn't even play baseball!"

[commish]

ALS is one of the most horrible ways to go. To have to sit there and watch your body basically disintigrate around you.

[norraad]

That's even funnier.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"Possible Gene found..."

[zarf]

The Match Game! I must be getting old.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Actually pretty poor. Normally a disease is named for the doctor who discovered it.

I have good news and bad news.
Bad News: You have a never-before-seen disease.
Good News: They're nameing it after me.

Alzheimer didn't get Alzheimer's.
Crohn didn't get Crohn's.
etc.

[coronado]

I hope this information helps Tom Watson's longtime friend and caddie, Bruce. And thousands of other suffering people whose story I don't know. God, I pray so.

[presidio9]

Sorry to say that discovering the gene that may cause the disease is of no help to those who already have it. Say a prayer for Bruce Edwards, but nothing is going to save him at this point.

[SwinneySwitch]

Thanks, presidio! I have two friends with ALS!

[norraad]

Yes, one of many misleading aspects of western corpo~med.inc.

It makes the other systems begin to make more sense.

For instance, in my case, I had a longstanding many named (all wrong) problem until I went with acupunture & shiatsu.

At first the eastern terms sounded odd, but the more I learned about the "system as a whole", the better I felt about understanding what had gone wrong & what I could do about it.

[Dasaji]

I have a dear friend with ALS - it is, by far, the worst disease one could get. More and more research is being done but because of its supposed rarity of instances, not enough $$ gets thrown toward it. If the 2/100,000 is accurate, then Something is wrong with the water here in Pittsburgh - my friend with ALS can name 20 people he knows in this area with the disease.

[HairOfTheDog]

Ramius, I had not really done a lot of thinking about a genetic link to Lou Gehrig's, but this would be good for us to kind of 'know'.

(If we don't get cancer from the other side of the family first. ;~D)

[Ramius]

We're doomed.

Between this, smoking, drinking, and this killer sunburn I got over the weekend... It's hopeless. One double-bacon-cheeseburger please...

[HairOfTheDog]

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines....

[ALS]

I've seen a few nutballs on here make fun of ALS.

[CarmelValleyite]

Agreed -- I worked for the ALS Association here in an L.A. suburb some years back. It was by far the saddest environment I've ever worked in -- people or their relatives, newly diagnosed, called in frequently for advice on everything imaginable.

Staffers were often in tears from the stories, but I'm glad I did my stint there -- I agree that ALS is about the worst disease one can be diagnosed with, along with inoperable cancer and rapid progression MS (no remissions, all downhill).

A friend's father got it at 64 and was dead within a year. That friend lives every day in fear that he may have inherited that "gene." Very sad...

[CholeraJoe]

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines....

No kidding. I was all psyched to cut out the glue-sniffing and then I went to work this morning.

[PPHSFL]

Something that I would like to know is how some people with ALS die within a year while others live for 5-10 years, even longer. What causes this?