BALTIMORE, Md. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — ALS, or Lou Gehrig’S disease, and FTD, frontotemporal dementia, impacts thousands of people each year. And although they may seem like two totally different diseases… one impacting the brain, the other linked to muscle control, both are caused by damage of nerve cells and both are diagnosed after symptoms appear. Now, a breakthrough in the lab may help diagnose both diseases before any signs appear.
We’ve all witnessed ALS OR Lou Gehrig’s disease take some of the greatest minds and athletes from us.
Now what has been discovered inside this lab at Johns Hopkins may be life-saving for people who may be at risk of developing ALS, as well as FTD.
“Until recently, the two are considerably separate diseases,” said Philip Wong, Ph.D., Neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Researchers know that a protein in the brain called TDP43 becomes corrupted in both ALS and FTD.
“Then they can’t produce a normal protein, and therefore your cell lacks all these essential protein for the survival of the neuron,” explained Wong.
Until now, researchers didn’t know if the damage happened before symptoms appear or after.
“We only had the ability to look at these in post-mortem tissues after patients had passed away,” said Katie Irwin, M.D.-Ph.D. Candidate, Neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
She developed the blood test that identifies a specific protein linked to TPD-43 dysfunction. This protein could serve as a valuable biomarker for detecting ALS and FTD before symptoms appear.
“We were able to find elevated levels of this protein, really suggesting that this is a mechanism that occurs early on,” Irwin told Ivanhoe.
And by identifying these diseases earlier, doctors may be able to intervene with treatments sooner.
The team is now working to refine the tests and expand its use to other neurodegenerative diseases.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
| Philip C. Wong, Ph.D.
Professor for the Departments of Pathology and Neuroscience for Johns Hopkins Medicine |
Michael E. Newman
Senior Media Relations Representative for Marketing and Communications at Johns Hopkins Medicine |
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