Treatment+ALS

Treatment: There are many new therapies and treatment options along with and a series of clinical trials reporting results on patients consistently, although currently there is only one drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Riluzole, is a glutamate antagonist. “In two therapeutic trials riluzole prolonged survival by three to six months”(Lancomblez) this supports the theory of such glutamate regulation tie to ALS, but for the patients the effects are invisible. The patients are described as staying in “a milder state of the disease for longer than did controls.”(Rowland 6) In other clinical trials feeding Vitamin E was said to delay the onset and progression of the disease, but failed to extend survival of mice with a mutant SOD1 gene. These findings were subject to human trials with no substantial benefit to patients. Although many point to autoimmunity playing a role in the pathogenesis of ALS, immunotherapy has not been effective. “Corticosteroids, plasmapheresis, intravenous immune globulin, cyclyphosphamide, and whole body radiation have all failed.”(Rowland 4) These failed trials have caused skepticism of autoimmunity as a cause of ALS, and still remains controversial.

ALS Medical Advances