Researchers links nerve cell defect to ALS
Posted February 26, 2004 in ALS Research
Thursday, February 26, 2004 at 05:29 JST
(Kyodo News)
TOKYO -- Japanese researchers have found among patients suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease that a key intermediary in transmitting genetic information is not functioning properly in nerve cells and this may be causing neuronal death, according to a report in the British science journal Nature in its edition dated Thursday.
"There is a defect in the editing of the messenger RNA (mRNA)...in the spinal motor neurons of individuals affected by ALS," the research team said, linking the defect to neuronal death in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).