Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis and Treatment
A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neuromuscular and Movement Disorders".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 November 2023) | Viewed by 1652
Special Issue Editors
Interests: neurodegenerative disorders; biomarkers; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; immune system
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by the rapid destruction of motor neurons in the motor cortex, brain stem, and spinal cord, associated with a neuroinflammatory process whose etiopathogenic role is not yet well understood.
Respiratory failure is the leading cause of death, which usually occurs 3–5 years after the onset of the first symptoms. The diagnostic delay is typically 9–12 months, mainly due to the absence of diagnostic molecular biomarkers.
Currently, no effective treatment is available despite a huge international effort in hundreds of very expensive clinical trials to find a new drug. The pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the selective degeneration of motor neurons in ALS are complex, multifactorial, and not yet fully understood.
Since the clinical course is highly variable, it is possible that several factors contribute to the disease process. Many cellular and molecular processes have been implicated; including mitochondrial dysfunction, disturbance of axonal transport, toxic protein aggregation, inefficient protein degradation (involving the proteasome or autophagy, or both), prion dissemination, excitotoxicity, decreased neurotrophic support from non-neuronal cells, oxidative stress, hypermetabolism, inflammation, defects in RNA metabolism, and RNA toxicity.
The scope of this special issue is to collect recent advances on the ALS pathophysiology, biomarkers, diagnostic processes, and emerging therapeutic pathways.
We invite you to contribute with manuscript submissions related to molecular mechanisms, novel biomarkers for clinical trials stratification or outcome, diagnosis, and potential treatment targets or mechanisms.
Dr. Ana Catarina Pronto-Laborinho
Prof. Dr. Mamede De Carvalho
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- disease mechanisms
- diagnosis
- motor neuron degeneration
- pathophysiology
- biomarkers
- therapeutic targets
