Cross-Sectional Survey of Relevant Literatures as to the Current Proposed Disease Mechanisms and Treatments of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressively degenerative neuromuscular disorder affecting both the upper and lower motor neurons and preferentially affecting males in their forties to seventies. Although the pathology of ALS has been clearly elucidated elsewhere, the precise mechanisms by which the disease progresses and the means by which it is acquired are still poorly understood areas of medicine. Current genomic and proteomic studies in human and animal models have yielded exciting and promising new findings that may help elucidate this pathology. It is the purpose of this review article to discuss the most relevant proposed mechanisms in current medical literature available from NCBI’s PubMed database as well as to highlight past, present, and future pharmacologic intervention therapies which have experienced varying degrees of success. This is by no means an exhaustive assessment of the current literature available, however it should suffice as a thorough review of the most salient points of modern ALS research