Emerging disease-modifying therapies for the treatment of motor neuron disease/amyotropic lateral sclerosis

Abstract

It has been > 130 years since the first description of the upper and lower motor neuron disease called amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Sadly, there has been little change in the long interval over which this disease is diagnosed, or in its poor prognosis. Significant gains have been made, however, in understanding its pathophysiology and in symptomatic care. Disease-causing mutations have been identified and used to create animal models. Other identified mutations may increase susceptibility and cause disease only in a particular environment and at a particular age. A number of ‘downstream’ molecular pathways have been implicated, including transcriptional disturbances, protein aggregation, excitotoxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, cytoskeletal and axonal transport derangements, growth factor dysregulation and apoptosis. This knowledge has led to an impressive pipeline of candidate therapies that offer hope for finally being able to alter ALS disease progression. These are described and prioritized herein, and suggestions are offered for efficiently sifting through them.

Keywords::

• ALS
• amyotropic lateral sclerosis
• MND
• motor neuron disease
• neuroprotection

Acknowledgements

This research was supported (in part) by the Intramural Program of the NIMH (BJT). R Bedlack is a speaker for Pfizer and Lilly, and has a research grant from UCB Pharma.