Researchers at Western University have discovered a new connection between Lou Gehrig’s Disease and another fatal neurodegenerative disease.
According to researchers, a unique brain protein is a common link between those who have Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and those who have a variant of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) that causes cognitive impairment.
The protein called "tau" is important for maintaining the structure of neurons in the brain. However, if an individual suffers repeated head trauma, it can form piles of tau within a cell, called tau aggregates. Tau aggregates indicate a disease state in the brain.
“The hallmark of CTE, regardless of whether there is ALS or not, is tau aggregate formation. We have now shown that tau aggregates of those who have CTE and those who have this variant of ALS are the same,” said Dr. Michael J. Strong, the dean of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University and the principal investigator on the study.
By studying brain tissue, the researchers were able to show a unique state of tau in patients with CTE as well as patients with ALS. The researchers demonstrated their findings by showing that head trauma in an animal model causes piles of tau to form.
The information was published in the January 2018 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Previous research has shown that between 4% and 6% of patients with CTE will also simultaneously show clinical features of ALS, which is 800 times higher than the prevalence of ALS in the general population.
