Mitochondrial dysfunction & ALS

PubMed, the internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Mitochondrial dysfunction and its role in motor neuron degeneration in ALS“ (Mitochondrion. 2005 Apr;5(2):77-87). Authors of the article are Manfredi G and Xu Z from the Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, USA. Mitochondria play a pivotal role in many metabolic and apoptotic pathways that regulate the life and death of cells. Accumulating evidence suggests that mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Morphological and biochemical mitochondrial abnormalities have been described in sporadic human ALS cases, but the implications of these findings in terminally ill individuals or in post-mortem tissues are difficult to decipher. The future challenges are to devise models to better understand the relative contribution of mitochondrial dysfunction to the pathogenesis of ALS, as well as to identify therapeutic approaches that target mitochondrial dysfunction and its consequences. To access the abstract, click here.