Ohio State researchers find treatment that may prolong the lives of Lou Gehrig's disease patients

• A study in mice gives hope that a combination of gene therapy and exercise may extend the lives of people who have Lou Gehrig's disease.
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a chronic and progressive illness that leads to paralysis and ultimately death.
• There are no known cures, and the only FDA-approved method for treating the disease is a drug that may extend life between three and six months, said Brian Kaspar, the study's lead author and at Ohio State University.
• In the current study, the researchers looked at the effects of exercise both with and without additional gene therapy treatment.
• Some mice began exercise treatment (with no gene therapy) at 40 days of age, while other mice didn't start to exercise until 90 days of age.
• The mice that started exercising when they were younger lived about a month longer than the control mice, while the mice that began exercising at 90 days of age lived an average of 11 days longer than the control mice.
• Studies of other neuronal diseases, such as Parkinson's and Huntington's, have suggested that exercise may actually prevent neurons from dying.
• The gene they used, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), produces a hormone by the same name.
• "Research suggests that exercise boosts levels of IGF-1 as well as other proteins that may be beneficial," Kaspar said.
• "Combining the two had a profound effect on survival and function, suggesting that the treatments together may make a significant difference in ALS progression."
• Kaspar and his colleagues have already started the next phase of the mouse study, however -- they are training mice to run on a treadmill.
• " Understanding how exercise affects gene expression may help us find new therapies that slow down the progression of ALS," Kaspar said.