Cobbers on the Brain – Page 153 – Student Commentary on the Neurological Sciences

Heritability of ALS

Posted on October 20, 2015 by / 0 Comment

What is ALS?
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the motor neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. As the motor neurons die, the brain is unable to control the muscles involved. This is how the paralysis associated with ALS happens.
There are two different types of ALS, familial and sporadic affecting around 20,000 people in the United States. Only 5-10% of people have familial ALS, which means immediate family members have ALS also and it was inherited. Research suggests it is autosomal dominant inheritance in those families, so there would be a 50% chance that a child would inherit the disease. The other type, sporadic, is seen in the other 90-95% of the cases. This means that the person, to the best of our abilities, has a sporadic genetic mutation causing the disease. If a person has more than one mutation, they would have an earlier onset of the disease than someone with only one mutation. Some research is suggesting a link between concussions and ALS. Other research is just now revealing the possible genetic mutations causing ALS.
Types of Mutations
There are a lot of different mutations that can cause ALS. One of the common mutations that have been researched is the SOD1 mutation on chromosome 21 which causes abnormal protein deposits that aid in the degeneration of motor neurons. Not everyone with ALS has this mutation though. A study in Nature looking at fALS (not looking at SOD1) reported finding a faulty enzyme, Ubuiquilin-2, that is supposed to break down ubiquinated proteins. If the enzyme isn’t functioning, the proteins accumulate in the lower motor neurons and upper cortical motor neurons and block normal transmission of brain signals in the spinal cord and brain which lead to the paralysis. This build up is also seen when people have mutations in TDP-43 and C9ORF72 genes which cause the enzyme to malfunction in other ways.
As seen in the picture below, there are many ways in which the motor neuron can become damaged and die in ALS. Since there are many variations of the disease, it has been difficult to find medicines to treat it.

So… Is it inherited?
Unfortunately as with a lot of science, there is a lot of ambiguity in the research attempting to solve the genetic mechanisms of ALS and if it is inherited or not. Without the knowledge of family members with the disease, a neurological exam could not reveal if a person has the familial vs sporadic version of the disease. Both forms have been seen to have some of the same mutations. Currently, there are variants of other genes that are inherited that have been seen to cause a greater susceptibility to developing ALS, but no one “tell all” gene that can show that the disease is directly caused by inheritance. Hopefully with the new understandings of the mechanisms of the disease, researchers will be able to pinpoint ways of diagnosing and treating the disease with the specificity of that person’s genetic mutation.

Disease

The beginning of the cure for ALS.

Posted on October 20, 2015 by / 0 Comment

If I say the words “ice bucket challenge”, do you know what purpose of it is? Or what it is aiming to cure? The answer is the all-too-familiar Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. ALS has been on the back-burner of recent research mainly due to the fact that it affects only 30,000 Americans today. This is in comparison to the millions of people with some form of cancer, which respectfully has been a forefront of research for decades. In recent years, ALS has captivated copious amounts of attention. We may know that finding the cure to ALS is the purpose of the ice bucket challenge, but what is ALS exactly? Although I participated in an ice-cold bath to raise money, I struggled with that very question.
ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that is physically characterized by a decrease in motor function which is an effect of a loss of motor neurons in the brain stem, spinal cord and cerebral cortex. Although the reason for loss of function in motor neurons is still under investigation, glutamate toxicity is a main suspect.
At the end of each neuron, where glutamate is released to the receiving neuron, there is a little space called the synaptic cleft housing enzymes that will terminate the glutamate action or cause it to be a factor of reuptake for use again, and to prevent over-accumulation of glutamate. If there is excessive glutamate in this cleft and/or a dysfunction of one or more of these enzymes, glutamate’s receptors may be over-activated which would lead to the undesired massive influx of calcium with the end result being toxic to the neuron. There is also the possibility that one of the glutamate receptors, NMDAR, is potentially seen to be over-activated in ALS patients. Why is this important? Well, since NMDAR is permeable to calcium, and if high calcium levels may result in neuronal death, over-activation may play a vital role in what characteristics of ALS we are seeing. Although the process is more complicated than that, this is a major area of focus.
So what can we do so far? We know that excessive levels of glutamate in aforementioned clefts were a bad thing, so how can we prevent that? Today, there is a drug, called Riluzole, that remains the only disease-modifying drug for treatment of ALS. It does so by controlling by reducing glutamate release, uptake and glutamate receptor function. Although it hasn’t had significant improvements on patient lives (only extending ventilator-free living for a couple months for roughly $10 a pill), it still is a step in the right direction.
With more research, like all diseases, a better way can be found. Although a minority of the population is being affected, it is roughly 15 new diagnoses in the United States alone. That is 15 new families impacted by this debilitating disease which could be prevented if this research were carried out farther.

Disease/Hot topics

ALS… Why Do We Care?

Posted on October 20, 2015 by / 1 Comment

ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that quickly kills motor neuron functioning in the body. In most cases, patients afflicted with the disease die within five years. Although a specific cause has not been identified, however, multiple factors have been attributed to the onset of this disease. This may sound insensitive, but why do we care about the disease? Only 3.9 out of every 100,000 Americans are affected, which is only 0.0039%. Even in the targeted age group (70-79), only 0.017% suffer from the disease. Compare these statistics with cancer. In American citizen has a 39.6% chance of getting cancer in their lifetime. There are many other first world diseases with higher prevalence than ALS as well. So again, why do we care about this disease?
ALS has recently gained a lot of publicity through the Ice Bucket Challenge frenzy that occurred last year. This event helped to spread the word about the disease, it also raised about 100 million dollars for research of the disease. My question is; were people really concerned about finding a cure for ALS, or just participating in the newest social media craze? Before this fundraising, ALS did not receive significant amounts of donations for research. In fact, the only reason this disease received as much attention as it did was likely because it ended a very famous baseball player’s career (Lou Gehrig). Personally, I don’t think the disease needs more attention or increased funding. Not only because it is extremely uncommon, but also because it affects mostly the elderly. There are a limited number of resources in the research world; these resources being researchers and funding. I believe more research and funding needs to go towards diseases with a higher prevalence among the whole population. Once more prevalent diseases are cured, more attention can be given to more obscure diseases. Also, research on the common diseases like cancer may even provide knowledge necessary to find a cure to related, but less prevalent diseases. An applicable analogy of this idea relates to homework. If I have homework due in all four of my classes one night, what is the best way to complete it all? I’ll probably start with either the most difficult class or whichever homework is due the soonest. Once I complete that assignment, I go onto the next most important assignment and so on, until all my work is done. This method is much more effective than attempting to work on all the assignments at the same time. You may even learn something from the early assignments that help you complete the latter ones.
With that being said, research should still be conducted on ALS. However, with limited resources the research needs to be specifically directed. There are too many potential physiological causes to narrow down with the limited amount of funding researchers have. I think research should be directed towards gene therapy; this could have a high potential of limiting the prevalence of familial ALS. There are a few known proteins that cause some of the symptoms of ALS, errors in the SOD-1 protein in particular, that could potentially be corrected for with directed funds and research. All in all, ALS should remain one of the lower priority diseases because of its low prevalence and primarily affected age group.

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Is there enough money?

Posted on October 20, 2015 by / 0 Comment

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that affects motor neurons in the brain and in the spinal cord. ALS affects approximately 30,000 Americans at a given time. That means that 15 different people are diagnosed every single day in America. In the past few years ALS has received massive media attention through the campaign Ice Bucket challenge. The Ice bucket challenge has been a huge help for the ALS Association (ALSA) in terms of raising money for awareness and research. But the real question is if whether or not that is enough?
As of now there is only one medically approved drug by the FDA and that is the drug riluzole. Riluzole works by slowing the progression of the disease. The process of which riluzole works through the molecular level has not actually be discovered or agreed upon, it is just accepted to say that the drugs works by reducing the levels of the chemical messenger glutamate in the brain. Glutamate in reasonable concentrations is very common and helpful in a normal and healthy human but when there is prolonged over expression of glutamate it becomes extremely toxic and detrimental to nerve cells. This over expression is what eventually leads to the motor neurons being damaged and ultimately the progression of ALS. So the whole purpose of riluzole is to prevents the release of glutamate in the brain along with promoting the uptake of it. While riluzole has had some success in delaying the progression of the disease it by no means reverse the effects or stop the disease. The most common results from the drug is two to three month life expectancy increase along with a 9% increase in the probability of making it to one year.
With riluzole being the only approved drug for treating ALS you may begin to wonder why there is not other treatments. There are two reasons to why I believe that there are not more treatments for ALS and I also believe the first is a result of the the second. The first reason is that our knowledge of what is causing ALS is very limited and that is preventing the development of a successful drug. The second reason is that there is not sufficient money to fund more research into ALS. According to the ALSA they were able to generate $13.6 million dollars for research and of the research that is shown on their website only one of the six research programs they provided information about was directed towards finding a drug to help treat the disease. When comparing the money ALSA was able to provide, it is almost nothing compared to Susan G. Komen’s $49.5 million. Although breast cancer does affect more people than ALS it is just sad to see such a gap in funding because an ALS diagnosisis a death sentence where as a breast cancer diagnosis has a change for survival due to more successful trements regiments. Another cancer organization that does not support just one type of cancer but was almost able to raise more total money then the ALS Association as a whole is Livestrong. Livestrong was able to raise $35.5 million and ALSA was only able to raise $39.2 million.

With ALS lacking a highly successful treatment it is very sad to see that the disease’s association is really lacking when looking at the funding for research compared to other diseases, cancers or organizations. I’m very thankful for this class because it gave me more information about ALS and it also gave me the realization that ALSA needs help with funding to help develop a more successful treatment. I’m sure there are other organizations that also lack the funding and treatments just like ALS and as a society I think we need to step up and help these organizations, not just the major ones. Going forward I’m definitely going to donate money to different cancer and disease organizations because they all need help and I want to be apart of making peoples lives better. So I challenge you to do the same.
Sources:
http://www.alsa.org
http://ww5.komen.org
http://www.livestrong.org

Disease/Health

ALS: More Than Just an Ice Bucket Challenge

Posted on October 19, 2015 by / 0 Comment

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.

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ALS and important decisions to make

Posted on October 19, 2015 by / 0 Comment

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that leads to motor neurons death. There are two types of this disease including: fALS and sALS. Lateral sclerosis refers to the hardening of the spinal cord. The disease is characterized by muscle weakness. Since the ALS is progressive degeneration of the neurons in the brain and spinal cord, the patient slowly lose the function of all muscle. This is the most fatal feature of the disease because of loss of function of muscle associated with respiratory, cardiac, digestive, speech and other systems. Currently, there is not cure for ALS, except a drug called Riluzole, which decrease the symptoms of the disease. Glutamate is an important neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Glutamate plays a significant role in the onset of ALS disease. The concentration of glutamate is higher in the cells as well as in the fluid outside of the cells (extracellular fluid) in the ALS patients. This leads to neural dysfunction and degeneration, which is process resulting in death of the neurons. Riluzole regulates the level of glutamate in and outside of the neurons.
Discussion about ALS in our neurochemistry class did bring up other important topics such as sensitive conversations and decisions to be made by ALS patients and their family members. We spoke about whether or not consulting and being tested if one has a family member with ALS. It is a very important matter in one’s life because it might determine future decisions such as marriage, having children and other personal decisions. There are people who love to become parent; it becomes complicated and very difficult decision to make if genetic testing indicates a potential to develop ALS in the future. I am not sure if I can ignore my hope to become a mother some day and at the same time knowing that my child will suffer and die from ALS. It really made think about what I would want to do if I get diagnosed by ALS.
There is not a treat for ALS and at the same time there is not enough funding to get significant studies done about the possible treatments. As we discussed in our group, raising awareness and educating people on the disease might help to raise funds toward the research on the disease. For example Ice Bucket Challenge was a great step which has enabled the ALS Association to have a significant fund raising. Ice Bucket Challenge has caused awareness and also initiated research projects. I hope our society grow as a whole by helping and educating one another on fatal disease that can be cured by doing more research. If we always come up with creative ways like Ice Bucket Challenge to increase public awareness, then in return the society would help by donations toward research funding and emotional support to the patients and family members. If we know about the symptoms of a particular disease, then we would not act or say something offensive by seeing a patient having the disease.
I am so grateful for taking neurochemistry course at Concordia College. It has definitely helped me to learn about different disease, importance of public awareness on different topics related to our health, and function of the brain in cellular level. I know that there is a lot more topics to come and I will be appreciated by learning them. I feel very happy when I am writing on this website because I feel like I am contributing to social awareness and this is a way to help our society.

https://moodle.cord.edu/pluginfile.php/468373/mod_resource/content/1/NMDA%20receptors%20and%20ALS.pdf

Community/Uncategorized

What we know about concussion?

Posted on October 18, 2015 by / 0 Comment

I have learned great amount of information on concussion after reading the article of “The young brain and concussion: Imaging as a biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis” and had group discussions in our neurochemistry class. I had almost no information on concussion and its consequences. This article is a great source to obtain general information of what is concussion, and impacts of concussion on the brain in short and long term.
Changes in the brain after concussion, diagnosis, treatment, and current science on concussion:
Concussion causes alterations in the regions of the brain which in return impacts our behavior and perceptions of events happening in our body and in our environment. When concussion happens, it causes parts of the brain cells (neurons) to get injured and my die off. This is when the long term effects of concussion occurs. There is not a very in depth and well known scientific knowledge on pathophysiology (the functional changes associated with or resulting form) of concussion. This makes the treatment and diagnostic processes difficult. The techniques of imaging concussion’s effects on the brain are costly and most people might not afford it. Based on our group discussion on the topic, the insurance agencies do not cover the cost of these diagnostic measures. Some of the techniques also uses radiation which is not safe for us to use it often, in case of having second or third concussion especially for people who play sports like football. Since there is no well understanding of how and why the functional changes in the brain after concussion occurs, the treatment of concussion is not very well developed either. Treatment options might even make further functional changes in the brain.
Increasing awareness about concussion and its consequences to the best of our knowledge is the best method to approach concussion: Football is very important in American culture and the “hitting” part of it is what people enjoy. This is what causes concussion. As we discussed in our class, it is not easy to change a culture, but it is very crucial to raise awareness and educate public on concussion. We spoke about whether to change some rules in sports like football which might lead to less head injuries or develop more protective equipment. Since football has a very deep root in American culture, it would be difficult to convince people to make football safer by changing some rules. At the same time, it might cause players to hit harder if they wear protective equipment. The best conclusion we came up with was the fact that people do not know a lot about concussion, and educating them, and raising awareness would be the best possible solution at this time. It is very important to increase information of people on concussion so they take better care of their children or themselves who are playing some sports like football. This is because the impact of concussion is not the same for everyone, and its “healing” process also varies person to person. This is not for football, any sport or activity in which we hurt our head can cause concussion. I think it is important to increase public awareness because this is the secret to make informed and responsible decisions.

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Why knowing about marijuana is important?

Posted on October 18, 2015 by / 0 Comment

Marijuana is a preparation of a plant called Cannabis sativa. During the history, in different cultures, this plant has been used for different reasons. But the question is what it contains that has such impact on the person who uses it? According to the article of “Endogenous cannabinoids revisited: A biochemistry perspective”, Cannabis has at least 400 chemical components, 60 of them to cannabinoid class.
Why our body naturally produces cannabinoids:
We have cannabinoid system in our body, which is called endogenous cannabinoid system. It has protein molecules that are functioning as receptors for the cannabinoids that are naturally produced in our body. These are called endocannabinoids. They are naturally produced in the body. Different endocannabinoids in the body are produced when they are needed; they are not stored in the cells. They have important roles, for example, Anandamide, an endocannabinoid that is able control motor activities (movements), stimulates appetite, and so many other impacts. Another example is Oleamide, which is a sleep inducing substance. Endocannabinoids are involved in the pathway that leads to cell death. This characteristic and so many other benefits of endocannabinoids make scientists more willing to research and discover possible benefits of different compounds in Cannabis sativa plant. This is important because of possible production of new drugs to treat many diseases.
Potential benefits of cannabinoids in Cannabis sativa:

This is the molecular structure of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is a cannabinoid isolated form Cannabis sativa plant. Extensive research has been done on the characteristics and structure of this compound. The results of scientific researches on this cannabinoid, as a treatment for cancer, have indicated its important role in apoptosis of cancer cells. This is death of cancer cells. THC kills cancer cells by binding to the cannabinoid receptors and causing changes in the cell which leads to the death of the cell. Marijuana, a schedule I classified drug, needs to be thoroughly explored through scientific studies. This is because of its compounds’ possible potential for development of drugs, which can help with treatment of diseases. Having marijuana as a schedule I drug disables scientific studies about it. There are thousands of cancer patients who have used marijuana and reported satisfying results. The link to a video, which contains interviews with doctors, researchers and cancer patients. The video provides a helpful summary about potential benefits of this plant.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=THC+and+cancer+treatment&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=FE8E4717191445E6C3FEFE8E4717191445E6C3FE
Why should general public care about this topic:
I have learned helpful information during one week of discussion on topic of cannabinoids, endocannabinoids, endogenous cannabinoids system in the body, the role of endocannabinoids, and possible helpful characteristics of cannabinoids derived from marijuana. I shared what I have learned in the first three paragraphs. I would like to share my knowledge on the topic, even if it is not very completed, because I think it is very critical for general public to know about a matter before making any decision. We do know that marijuana can have potential to treat disease, but abuse of the drug is also associated with unwanted consequences. I found the adverse impacts of abusing THC on an online article, which the link is provided for. According to the article, some possible risks of consuming THC include: impaired motor skills, decrease in IQ, memory and cognition [in younger people]. The same article on this website explains, “THC before birth, soon after birth or during adolescence have shown problems with specific learning and memory tasks later in life”. Having enough information about risks and medical benefits of marijuana can help people to make informed decisions.
http://www.livescience.com/24553-what-is-thc.html

Community/Disease

ALS: Put your Money Where the Ice is

Posted on October 18, 2015 by / 0 Comment

Imagine if a close family member or friend was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The statistics flocking into your mind would include the debilitating symptoms, the understanding of knowing they may only have three to five years left to live, and the realization that the person you love will never be the same.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects roughly 30,000 individuals in the United States every year. The disease is “characterized by the massive loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord, brain stem and cerebral cortex.” This loss in function of motor neurons leads to stiffness, weakness, muscle cramps, decreased reflexes and eventually the inability to breath, leading to the tragic cause of death: suffocation. The eventual dysfunction of the motor neurons can be contributed to a neurotransmitter toxicity, (glutamate toxicity), with the major dysfunction involving excitotoxicity (too much calcium being released in the cell, leading to cell death) in the AMPA and NMDA receptors.
The AMPA receptors found in the cell membrane seem to be impacted due to the fact that when the channel for calcium to influx into the cell stays open, or “unedited”, the channel doesn’t have the ability to control the amount of calcium let into the cell, as mentioned before, leading to excitotoxicity and death of the motor neuron.

What has recently been reviewed is the impact the NMDA receptors (the main receptor for the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate) may play in regards ALS. Similar to AMPA receptors, calcium may enter the cell at a rate that leads to excitotoxicity. This excitotoxicity results in calcium release from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), eventually leading to misfolded proteins. The structure of a protein is the entire basis of the function to the protein. With misfolded proteins, the function is compromised, giving rise for the cell’s inability to carry out its function, eventually leading to cell death.
Even if all of this information was known, the news of the diagnosis would probably leave you with one statistic looming over all the rest.
There is no cure.
Even with certain treatments, such as Riluzole and Memantine, by inhibiting NMDA receptors, the symptoms of the disease are only prolonged by two to three months. If this were the case, what would you do? Research is heavily funded dependent on the number of individual’s impacted. Some diseases most impacted by people include lung and heart disease, breast cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. ALS is not amongst the top in the list. So what to do?
Raise awareness.
icebucket
The ice bucket challenge has that connotation for that exact purpose. Dumping buckets of ice water over the head has swept through nations of bringing awareness to the neurodegenerative disease of ALS. The challenge went viral on social media just last year. The challenge is to film proof of ice water actually being dumped on the head, posting the video to social media, and then nominating friends and family to participate within 24 hours or forfeit by donating money to research funding of ALS.
But even if ALS is not among the top diseases to impact people in the world, I don’t believe that should make it any less important in finding a cure. ALS, as with any major disease, impacts more than just the individual. Entire families, friend circles and communities are impacted by the horrific and debilitating symptoms associated with these neurodegenerative diseases. Regardless of how many are affected, I still believe ALS should receive research funding in order to find a cure. Donate regardless of if you complete the Ice Bucket Challenge or not. If that means put your money where the ice is, do that!

Disease/Health/Hot topics

ALS: More is still to come…

Posted on October 17, 2015 by / 0 Comment

This week in NeuroChem we discussed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, which is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. When the motor neurons degenerate scarring occurs, which causes sclerosis, hardening of the spinal cord. Since these neurons can no longer function properly, the brain is unable to initiate and control muscle movement. Individuals with ALS eventually lose the ability to breath, eat, speak, or move, and eventually die from this disease since there is no cure.
If you had a history of ALS in your family, would you want to be tested to see whether you had the gene and could potentially develop ALS? Personally, I would not want to know, because I wouldn’t want that knowledge to consume my life and spend my time waiting around for the disease to kill me. But the issue also arises, if you knew you could potentially develop ALS, would you want to have children and risk passing it on to them? I know I would feel like a horrible parent for passing ALS onto my child.
Currently, not a lot of money is being spent on ALS research compared to cancer research, so the question remains, even though there is not a large portion of the population suffering from ALS should more money be allocated to ALS research in order to find a cure? There is an estimated 30,000 people suffering from ALS in the United States, so even though there is not a lot of people suffering from ALS compared to an estimated 14.5 million people currently suffering from cancer, that doesn’t make it any less important. With this being said, I think that ALS should be made a higher priority in the field of research.
It is important that we, as a society, promote ALS research. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is currently the most successful promotional campaign for ALS research. The Ice Bucket Challenge has allowed the ALS Association to double their annual budget, which has helped them to fund more research projects. Hopefully, through increased awareness of ALS and monetary donations, there will be a cure found for ALS in the near future!
References
http://www.alsa.org/
http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@editorial/documents/document/acspc-044552.pdf