Active clinical trials for "Motor Neuron Disease"

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that poses a significant burden for affected individuals and their family members. The principal objective of this epidemiologic study is to identify environmental and genetic risk factors for ALS. Of primary interest is whether environmental chemicals such as heavy metals, pesticides and organic solvents contribute to the cause of ALS. We also aim to identify genetic factors that contribute to the risk of ALS because individuals with certain genetic traits may be unable to protect against the toxic effects of chemical exposure. Other factors that may protect against the development of ALS, such as dietary antioxidants, are also under investigation. If modifiable factors affecting the risk for ALS could be identified, interventions to delay or even prevent the development of ALS could be developed.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal disease with progressive muscle weakness leading to severe disability and eventually death.Since the diagnosis relies on clinical features and electromyographic abnormalities, which may occur rather late in the disease course, there is a need to identify diagnostic tests that can confirm or exclude the diagnosis of ALS in the earlier phase of the disease. More recently, there are studies suggesting neuroinflammation to play a role for the development of ALS. Cluster of differentiation 163 is found to be up regulated in a large range of inflammatory diseases. At the investigators lab, pilot data (Kallestrup M et al, unpublished data) has shown promising results. There was an increased level of cluster of differentiation 163 (sCD163) in cerebrospinal fluid in 7 patients with ALS compared with controls. The purpose of the investigators study is to define the concentration of sCD163 in the cerebrospinal fluid and serum in patients with ALS compared with controls (patients with unspecified neurological symptoms). Furthermore, the investigators will define the concentrations of protein, glucose, immunoglobulin G index and other factors in the spinal fluid.

This is a multicenter, 18-month study, which aims to identify imaging and biofluid biomarkers in people with ALS to expand the understanding of ALS pathology, treatment targets, disease progression, and anatomical differences between different disease phenotypes. This pilot project is tailored to produce imaging tools that will allow researchers to conduct future ALS clinical trials more efficiently which may in turn impact the pace for ALS drug discovery.

This trial is studying Electrical Impedance Myography (EIM) for measuring muscle health. The trial is studying people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), other neuromuscular diseases, and healthy volunteers to see if the EIM device can measure disease in muscle tissue.

Weight loss is a common phenomenon in ALS. During the course of the disease, difficulty in swallowing and mastication can be responsible for a decrease in caloric intake and thus for weight loss. However, significant weight loss can also be observed in patients with no feeding difficulties. About half of ALS patients have an increase in their resting energy consumption, but the origin of this "hypermetabolism" remains unknown. "Brown" fat is specialized in the production of heat. Unlike "white" fat that stores excess caloric intakes, brown fat consumes energy. In humans, brown fat has long been considered as absent in adults. However, recent imaging techniques have been able to detect brown fat deposits in some adult subjects. The aim of this study is thus to determine the role of brown fat on energy consumption in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease affecting the central and peripheral motor neurons, characterized by the rapidity of its evolution (median survival of 3 years). The pathophysiology of the disease is still poorly understood. Neuronal death results from several cellular mechanisms entangled, including mitochondrial dysfunction. The absence of diagnostic marker causes a significant delay in diagnosis, on average a year. On the other hand, the wish biomarker is important for therapeutic trials. Recently, MRI sodium (23Na) demonstrated its importance to detect noninvasively sodium accumulations associated with neuronal suffering. This neuronal pain can be caused by mitochondrial dysfunction causing the accumulation in the sodium and calcium cell causing neuronal death. These studies were conducted in multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, stroke and brain tumors. They demonstrated that sodium MRI could be an effective and sensitive biomarker for detecting and quantifying neuronal degeneration. The goal of this study is to assess neuronal damage noninvasively by MRI sodium in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

The diaphragmatic pacemaker (DP) has proven its utility in replacing mechanical ventilation (MV) in patients with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), by improving the patients quality of life and reducing morbi-mortality and the associated health care costs. The anesthetic management of these patients and the particularities of the surgical procedure represent an anesthetic challenge. The objective of our study is to analyze the management and the intraoperative complications in the patients with DP in our institution.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a relentlessly progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive weakness involving limb, bulbar, and respiratory muscles.There is currently no information suggesting how COVID-19 affects patients diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This is especially important as respiratory compromise is common in ALS patients and can complicate the clinical course as COVID-19 could lead to respiratory failure and need for intubation. We intend that this registry will guide our understanding of how COVID-19 affects patients with ALS.

This is phase IIa feasibility and tolerability study of a mobile health (mHealth) application designed to study the effects of remote dietary counseling on disease progression and quality of life. The study will consist of two phases: Part I will consist of building and beta-testing the ALS Nutrition app and Part II will consist of enrolling a larger cohort of users into the app.

The Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (ONDRI) is a province-wide collaboration studying dementia and how to improve the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases including: Alzheimer's disease (AD) Parkinson's disease (PD) amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTD) vascular cognitive impairment, resulting from stroke (VCI)