View clinical trials related to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Filter by:1. Describe the distribution of ALS in mainland China, to explore the differences in the number of ALS in different times, regions and populations in order to further explore the causes affecting the distribution of ALS; 2. To investigate the cause of ALS in mainland China in the crowd disease development process and the corresponding characteristics change ; 3. To explore the effect of prognosis of ALS;
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Charcot disease, is a neurodegenerative disease evidenced by gradual paralysis of the muscles involved in voluntary motor function. The clinical hallmark of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is the combination of upper and lower motor neuron signs and symptoms. The most recent studies suggest that up to 50% of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis patients demonstrate mild to moderate cognitive disturbance. Impaired social cognition, including a deficit in the recognition of facial emotions and the identification of vocal prosody, is recognized as a part of the cognitive phenotype of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, with crucial implications for patients' and caregivers' training. However, studies remain scarce and the data acquired must be supported. The evolution of these manifestations during the disease is still poorly understood. In this study the investigators aim to assess the social cognition capacities of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis compared to healthy matched control subjects.
Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis type 4 (ALS4) is an inherited motor neuron disease. People with ALS4 have a change in the amount of RNA and DNA that bind together. This binding of RNA with DNA forms units called R-loops. Researchers want to learn how R-loops are related to ALS4. To do this, they will study people with inherited neurological conditions that may affect R-loop levels. These include ALS4, progressive external opthalmoplegia with mitochondrial deletions (PEOB2), Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome (AGS), and ataxia and oculomotor apraxia type 2 (AOA2). Objective: To learn how the binding of RNA with DNA (R-loops) is related to neurological disease. Eligibility: People age 5 and older with ALS4, PEOB2, AGS, and AOA2. Healthy relatives and nonrelatives are also needed. Design: Participants may be screened with a review of x-rays and other medical records. Healthy relative and nonrelative participants will have 1 visit. All other participants will have 4 visits over 3 years. At visits, participants will undergo some or all of the following: Medical history Physical exam Tests of muscle strength and volume and physical function Blood tests Pregnancy test (for some females) Skin biopsy of forearm Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) Dual x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Some tests are optional. The MRI uses a magnetic field and radio waves to take pictures. Participants will lie on a table that slides in and out of the scanner. The scanner makes noise. They will get earplugs. The DEXA scan uses x-rays to take pictures. MRI and DEXA will be used to measure muscle, fat, and lean body mass. ...
This study aims to evaluate safety and efficacy of tSMS in ALS patients and to obtain preliminary data about the effects of tSMS on cortical excitability. To this purpose, 40 ALS patients will be recruited and randomized to real or sham tSMS. After at least 3 months follow-up, they will undergo tSMS, daily for 120 min, at home, for 6 consecutive months. Clinical status will be tested before, during and after the stimulation period. Moreover, cortical excitability will be tested by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) before and after the stimulation period.
"Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are computer-based systems that acquire brain signals, analyze them, and translate them into commands that are relayed to an output device to carry out a desired action. BCIs represent a very active and promising field of research among devices for people with severe motor disabilities. As the currently available systems correspond to research prototypes, they are not adapted to daily live situations. On the other hand, some systems have recently been commercialized, principally for video games but they are not satisfactory for use as a substitute technology in disability. A BCI's prototype for alternative communication using a virtual keyboard, the P300 Speller, has been developed by the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Athena team - Nice University). This prototype includes an EEG-cap with gel based active electrodes. A recent study conducted on 20 patients with ALS (University Hospital, Nice) demonstrated the usability of the system and the patient satisfaction concerning the ease of use and utility. To achieve a system that can be used in daily live in severely disabled patients, technical developments are necessary. The investigators have conceptualized and developed an ergonomic, comfortable, headset, including dry electrodes to allow a prolonged use of the system. The purpose of the study conducted all along the development of the headset is to improve the developed system until a successful system is achieved. This study is a monocentric usability study conducted on ALS people.
ARTFL LEFFTDS Longitudinal Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (ALLFTD) represents the formalized integration of ARTFL (U54 NS092089; funded through 2019) and LEFFTDS (U01 AG045390; funded through 2019) as a single North American research consortium to study FTLD for 2019 and beyond.
A multi-center registration study of natural history and clinical characteristics of ALS in mainland China
MND-SMART is investigating whether selected drugs can slow down the progression of motor neurone disease (MND) and improve survival. The study is 'multi-arm' meaning more than one treatment will be tested at the same time. The trial started with 3 arms; drug 1 (memantine), drug 2 (trazodone) and placebo (dummy drug). A third drug, amantadine, was added in April 2023. The first two drugs, memantine and trazodone, were removed from the trial in September 2023 due to lack of benefit. The trial currently has 2 recruiting arms; amantadine and placebo. This allows the evaluation of each drug versus placebo. Participants will be randomly allocated to either of the recruiting arms. Medicines being tested are already approved for use in other conditions. MND-SMART has an 'adaptive' design. This means medicines being studied can change according to emerging results. Treatments shown to be ineffective can be dropped and new drugs can be added over the duration of the study. This will allow many treatments, over time, to be efficiently and definitively evaluated. The medicines being tested have been selected following a rigorous process involving a systematic, unbiased, and comprehensive review of past clinical trials data, as well as information from pre-clinical research (studies in laboratories), for MND and other related neurodegenerative disorders. Drugs have been ranked for inclusion in MND-SMART by a group of independent MND experts according to set criteria. These include consideration of how the drugs work, their safety profiles, and the quality of previous studies. New drugs will be selected for investigation in MND-SMART based on continuous review of constantly updated scientific evidence as well as findings from state-of-the-art human stem cell based drug discovery platforms. These can be added by substantial amendment to the protocol.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the validity of a previous clinical trial named EH301, which showed beneficial effects of anti-oxidant therapies in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). If validated by this study, providing over-the-counter anti-oxidants would be a simple, low risk, low-cost approach to significantly slow or stop the progression of ALS, for which currently no effective treatment exists. It is currently thought that oxidative stress is a major cause of ALS. The study investigators are therefore planning to expand the original scope of the previous trial by including anti-oxidants at high doses that were not previously used. All of these compounds are considered safe.
BACKGROUND/RATIONALE: The paucity of biomarkers for the diagnosis and monitoring of patients affected by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is one of the greatest concerns in ALS clinics and research. Phenotypic signs, electrophysiological test and clinical scales are currently used for ALS diagnosis and follow up before and after treatments. Nowadays, the diagnosis and differential diagnosis used to discriminate ALS from other comparable neurodegenerative diseases, are time-consuming and complex processes that reduce the time for a prompt intervention. Thus, the scientific community is asked to strive for new, measurable, fast and objective biomarkers for the diagnosis and stratification of patients. Saliva is a complex biofluid composed of bioactive molecules that can be collected by means of a non-invasive procedure. The possibility to simultaneously monitor all the variations in the endocrine, electrolytic and metabolic messengers in saliva has recently suggested its use for the diagnosis of complex diseases, like neurodegenerative diseases, but only limited information are available on the potential of saliva as alternative carrier of ALS biomarkers. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present project is to optimize an innovative, non-invasive and fast procedure for the ALS onset and for the stratification of ALS patients, taking advantage of the sensitivity of Raman Spectroscopy (RS) and of accessible saliva. Fondazione Don Gnocchi (FDG) preliminary results on a small cohort of subjects demonstrated the feasibility of the methodology and the ability of LABION protocol to obtain a reproducible Raman fingerprint of saliva that can be used for the discrimination of healthy subjects, ALS patients and subjects affected by other types of neurological diseases. METHODS: Starting from FDG preliminary results, the biochemical composition of saliva in patients with diagnosed ALS will be evaluated and statistically compared with the one obtained from age and sex-matched healthy subjects and from patients affected by other neurological diseases (Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases). Moreover, an intra-group ALS clustering will be analysed in order to verify a different Raman fingerprint obtained from ALS patients with a bulbar or spinal onset. The collected Raman data will be processed using a multivariate analysis approach through Principal Component Analysis - Linear Discriminant Analysis (PCA-LDA). The classification model will be created using cross-validation and subset validation. Thanks to RS, the overall composition of saliva will be established with minimal sample preparation, providing comprehensive biochemical fingerprint of the sample. In parallel, routine salivary parameters will be measured including viscosity, pH, total protein and carbohydrates concentration, amylase and pepsin, cortisol and Chromogranin A. EXPECTED RESULTS: By the end of this study, the investigators expected to verify the possibility to use the Raman salivary pattern as new promising biomarker for ALS diagnosis and progression to be related with clinical scales for the personalized and fine tuning of the therapeutic approach. The intent of this project is to create a classification model able to: 1. Determine the ALS onset 2. Discriminate the signal obtained from ALS patients from the one collected from other neurodegenerative diseases 3. Stratify ALS patients into bulbar and spinal onset 4. Correlate the Raman data with clinical and paraclinical scales used nowadays for ALS diagnosis and monitoring