[SCAN] Emerging molecular biomarker targets for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

SCAN

Title: Emerging molecular biomarker targets for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Speaker: Júlia Costa

Affiliation: Glycobiology Lab, ITQB NOVA

Abstract:

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects upper and lower motor neurons. It is associated with a short survival and there is no effective treatment, in spite of a large number of clinical trials. Strong efforts have been made to identify novel disease biomarkers to support diagnosis, provide information on prognosis, to measure disease progression in trials and increase our knowledge on disease pathogenesis. Recently strong evidence from independent groups, large cohorts of patients and multicenter studies indicate that neurofilaments are very promising diagnostic biomarkers, in particular cerebrospinal fluid and blood levels of phosphoneurofilament heavy chain and neurofilament light chain. Furthermore, their increased levels are associated with poor prognosis.

Additional studies have been performed aiming to identify other biomarkers. Emerging molecular marker targets are being discovered, but more studies with standardized methods are required in larger cohorts of ALS patients.