Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Molecular Mechanisms, Biomarkers, and Therapeutic Strategies

Overview

Journal Antioxidants (Basel)

Date 2021 Jul 2

PMID 34202494

Citations 29

Authors

Xiaoming Yang

Yanan Ji

Wei Wang

Lilei Zhang

Zehao Chen

Miaomei Yu

Yuntian Shen

Fei Ding

Xiaosong Gu

Hualin Sun

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease with the progressive loss of motor neurons, leading to a fatal paralysis. According to whether there is a family history of ALS, ALS can be roughly divided into two types: familial and sporadic. Despite decades of research, the pathogenesis of ALS is still unelucidated. To this end, we review the recent progress of ALS pathogenesis, biomarkers, and treatment strategies, mainly discuss the roles of immune disorders, redox imbalance, autophagy dysfunction, and disordered iron homeostasis in the pathogenesis of ALS, and introduce the effects of RNA binding proteins, ALS-related genes, and non-coding RNA as biomarkers on ALS. In addition, we also mention other ALS biomarkers such as serum uric acid (UA), cardiolipin (CL), chitotriosidase (CHIT1), and neurofilament light chain (NFL). Finally, we discuss the drug therapy, gene therapy, immunotherapy, and stem cell-exosomal therapy for ALS, attempting to find new therapeutic targets and strategies. A challenge is to study the various mechanisms of ALS as a syndrome. Biomarkers that have been widely explored are indispensable for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of ALS. Moreover, the development of new genes and targets is an urgent task in this field.

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