The poison next door

摘要

The neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) causes deterioration of muscle control by killing motor neurons. Now, two studies suggest that therapies should focus not on the motor neurons, but on neighbouring non-neuronal cells known as glia. Roughly 2% of ALS cases are caused by a mutation in a gene known as superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1). Serge Przedborski and his colleagues at Columbia University in New York found that a particular type ofglial cell, an astrocyte (pictured), carrying the SOD1 mutation releases an unknown factor that kills motor neurons.