NEW YORK: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease) is a progressive disorder that devastates motor nerve cells. People diagnosed with ALS slowly lose the ability to control muscle movement, and are ultimately unable to speak, eat, move, or breathe. The cellular mechanisms behind ALS are also found in certain types of dementia.
A groundbreaking scientific study published in Nature Medicine has found one way an RNA binding protein may contribute to ALS disease progression. Cells make RNA to carry instructions for making proteins from DNA to protein-constructing machinery.