The Neurology professor at the University of Tours (France), Philippe Corcia, has emphasized that "identifying the earliest biological event in ALS is especially important, as it could allow for an earlier diagnosis and provide a rational basis for the development of biomarkers and targeted therapies."
Corcia has participated in the X International ALS Meeting in Spain, held at the Ramón Areces Foundation and organized together with the Luzón Foundation, where he recalled that the onset of the pathology could originate from different elements of the motor network, "including the cortex, the motor neuron, the axon or the neuromuscular junction, the muscle or the glial compartment."
At this scientific meeting, evidence has been reviewed that places the motor neuron as a possible initial focus of the disease. Corcia's presentation has focused on the processes involved in the degeneration of these motor neurons, responsible for transmitting the orders of the nervous system to the muscles and essential for the execution of movement.
Together with Corcia, other national and international experts have participated in this day of the Luzón Foundation and the Ramón Areces Foundation with the aim of deepening the mechanisms linked to the origin and progression of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
PERSPECTIVES ON THE DIVERSITY OF ALS
ALS is characterized by marked heterogeneity and, although the degeneration of motor neurons is one of its defining features, the analysis of other tissues and systems in the body is offering new lines of research to clarify the biological processes involved in its onset and evolution.
The session opened with a presentation by Alberto García Redondo, a researcher at the 12 de Octubre University Hospital in Madrid, who provided an overview of the clinical diversity of ALS and the main scientific theories that attempt to explain its origin and course.
His presentation has allowed for framing the different forms of presentation of the disease and the mechanisms that the research community is analyzing to understand why ALS can manifest differently among patients.
"Advances in genetics and molecular biology have shown that, behind the same diagnosis, there are different genetic alterations, cellular mechanisms, and forms of clinical evolution. Recent research has identified molecular changes associated with ALS in tissues other than the nervous system, even years before the appearance of the first symptoms, although we still do not know their significance in relation to the origin of the disease," he pointed out.
The program has also incorporated other lines of work that expand the focus beyond the motor neuron. In this context, José Luis González de Aguilar, a researcher at the University of Strasbourg (France), has reviewed the data and theories that consider muscle as a possible protagonist in the onset and progression of ALS.
"There is solid evidence that muscle cells present intrinsic alterations in ALS, although this does not necessarily mean that these cells are the ones that initiate the disease. It seems that muscle pathology interacts with neuronal pathology in different ways, affecting both muscle fibers and neuromuscular synapses and, therefore, the functioning of motor neurons," González de Aguilar pointed out.