Treating Non-Neuronal Cells Possible Option in ALS

Although motor neurons are the main site of damage in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) , recent research has shown that other cell types in the nervous system can exacerbate or diminish disease severity and, therefore, might be good targets for therapy.

In a study recently published in the journal Science, Don Cleveland at the University of California-San Diego and colleagues showed that reducing levels of ALS-causing, abnormal SOD1 protein only in microglia, cells through which immune responses are mounted in the nervous system, significantly slowed the later phase of the ALS disease process in mice, even when the abnormal protein levels remained high in the motor neurons.