NEUROPROTECTIVE DRUG DISCOVERY AND NEURAL STEM CELL RESEARCH IN ALS

Xin Wang

Neuroapoptosis Drug Discovery Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Boston, MA, USA

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a debilitating disease characterized by progressive loss of voluntary motor neurons leading to muscle atrophy. Because riluzole, the only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment, prolongs the ALS patient’s life by only 3 months, new therapeutic treatments that may delay disease onset, slow progression, prolong survival, and ultimately reduce the burden of disease are urgently needed. Harnessing the regenerative potential of the central nervous system would be a novel approach for the treatment of motor neuron death resulting from ALS. The impact of neural stem cell therapies and neuroprotective drugs such as melatonin on disease onset and progression of ALS will be summarized. Furthermore, the increased cell proliferation in the adult mSOD1^G93A ALS transgenic mice, and the Wnt/β- catenin signaling pathway promotes the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells in the adult spinal cord of mSOD1^G93A ALS transgenic mice will be discussed.