Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information US, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Drug Discovery and Development
December 1, 2003
SECTION: Industry News Update; Global News; Pg. 19
LENGTH: 500 words
BYLINE: Pam Holland-Moritz

A panel of newly identified protein biomarkers might one day provide a quick and accurate test for ALS. Currently, there is no test available to rapidly diagnose amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a motor neuron disease characterized by the breakdown of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord.

"It can take a year to 14 months to give a patient a true diagnosis of ALS," says Robert Bowser, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh. But a study conducted by Bowser to detect protein abnormalities in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients afflicted with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, has led to the identification of a panel of protein biomarkers for the disease, and hopefully a way to quickly and accurately test for it.

The study, presented in November at the 11th annual meeting of the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations and 14th International Symposium in Milan, Italy, identified ALS-specific biomarkers by studying the protein profiles of CSF fluid for 25 ALS patients and 35 control subjects. Bowser and his team used charged surfaces on a Cyphergen protein chip to bind subsets of proteins within the CSF and then used mass spectroscopy to identify protein beams contained within the sample. Comparing the protein peaks that displayed significant differences between both the ALS patients and the control groups, the team was able to identify biomarkers that could help diagnose ALS with a high degree of accuracy.

The researchers looked for biomarkers in CSF for two reasons. Because CSF is located in close proximity to motor neurons and brain cells that could be affected by ALS, Bowser theorized the fluid would also possess a higher concentration of biomarkers for the disease. CSF, unlike blood, is also less likely to be affected by non-neurologic factors, and is thus a better sample pool for the ALS study.

Identification of the ALS biomarkers is not only important to develop a way to rapidly diagnose the disease. It may also pave the way toward developing more effective therapies for ALS patients and slow the progression of the disease. "By identifying the biomarkers, we can then identify biochemical pathways that are altered during the disease process, and thereby identify new therapeutic targets," says Bowser. Additionally, it may be possible to monitor drug effectiveness in clinical trials. Physicians will be able to track the protein abnormalities within the CSF and determine whether or not their patients are responding favorably to a particular drug.

Bowser wants to expand the study to confirm the initial results. Also on his agenda is obtaining amino acid sequence information for all the identified biomarkers. Finally, he is interested in tracking the biomarkers throughout the progression of the disease. "We are pursuing how this biomarker panel changes during disease progression. We have evidence that the markers themselves will change as the disease progresses," says Bowser.