Recently ALS has been on the radar of many because of something called the ALS ice bucket challenge. The challenge composes of people dumping a bucket of ice on their head and then saying that they will donate money to research for ALS. I’m not trying to make assumptions but my guess would be that most of the people doing the challenge don’t have a great knowledge of what ALS is. Instead they did the challenge to post a video on Facebook because everyone was doing it and that was the extent of it for him or her. By no means am I saying that this cause is bad because this challenge did actually raise quite a bit of money for research and raise a lot of awareness for ALS, but I feel that it shifts the spotlight from what ALS truly is and how devastating it can be. This brings me to explaining the science behind ALS and why there is a need for funds raised by the ice bucket challenge.
ALS is characterized as an adult onset neurodegenerative disease that is caused by the degeneration of motor neurons in the brain stem, spinal cord and cerebral cortex. There are multiple pathways that have been suggested to be degenerated by ALS, but more research needs to be done to see which ones are leading to the effects induced by ALS. Glutamate toxicity as of now has been the most researched pathway being the underlying cause of ALS. Another pathway under discussion deals with low calcium buffering. This leads to the mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum becoming engulfed with calcium leading to misfolding of proteins and triggering of the unfolded protein response. This in turn leads to cell death and degeneration of motor neurons. The reason that the symptoms associated with ALS are loss of motor function and paralysis is due to the degradation of the motor neurons. Motor neurons take a signal in and transfer it down its axon. It then releases synaptic vesicles containing a neurotransmitter that speaks with the muscle and tells it to move. That is being said in a very simplistic manner but that is the basic function of motor neurons, so when they are degraded that is why you lose function.
Overall there are many pathways that have been proposed to be leading to the degeneration of motor neurons and causing ALS. With the ALS ice bucket challenge, a large sum of money was raised that will help in finding the pathway causing the degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS. Once again, the ice bucket challenge is a good thing, but just know why and what ALS is before you feel that sensation of cold water spill over your head.
ALS: More Than Just an Ice Bucket Challenge
