Lou Gehrig's disease - also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - may be effectively treated with a simple copper compound, a recent study suggests.
The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, details how researchers determined that supplemental therapy using the compound called "copper (ATSM)" can extend the lifespan of ALS patients by up to 26 percent - a significantly long time compared to the minimal success of current ALS treatments.
So why copper? Extensive research on ALS has revealed that the rapid neural degradation that characterizes the disease is linked to mutations in superoxide dismutase - an antioxidant also known as SOD1.
Normally, this antioxidant is essential to healthy cells; however, recent research published back in April in the journal Cell Stem Cell details how genetic mutations such as this can lead to a shortage of essential proteins. This shortage leads to neurofilaments erecting poorly formed structures along neural transports, in turn causing "tangles" in neural pathways that inhibit neurological communication and cause the eventual degradation of nerves.
The author of that study, Dr. Su-Chun Zhang, explained in a statement that he believes if you could target this problem, correcting the mutation or protein inhibition, you could "potentially rescue the nerve cell."
According to the new study, copper therapy could do just that. Restoring the proper balance of copper in the brain and spinal cord helps correct SOD1 function, slowing the progression of nerve cell degradation in the process.
Researchers are quick to point out that their therapy is very selective as to where copper levels are raised or restored.
"Copper itself is necessary but can be toxic, so its levels are tightly controlled in the body," lead researcher Joseph Beckman said in a statement. "The therapy we're working toward delivers copper selectively into the cells in the spinal cord that actually need it. Otherwise, the compound keeps copper inert."
In animal testing of this therapy, the researchers found that the lifespan of mice with progressed ALS improved by 26 percent, compared to an untreated group.
The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience on June 4.