title: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Current perspectives from basic research to the clinic.
abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive degeneration of upper and lower motoneurons, leading to muscle weakness and paralysis, and finally death. Considerable recent advances have been made in basic research and preclinical therapeutic attempts using experimental models, leading to increasing clinical and translational research in the context of this disease. In this review we aim to summarize the most relevant findings from a variety of aspects about ALS, including evaluation methods, animal models, pathophysiology, and clinical findings, with particular emphasis in understanding the role of every contributing mechanism to the disease for elucidating the causes underlying degeneration of motoneurons and the development of new therapeutic strategies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurosciences and Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: Renzo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mancuso
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurosciences and Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Bellaterra, Spain. Electronic address: xavier.navarro@uab.cat.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Navarro
mesh_terms: D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans
keywords: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Motoneurons disease; Neurodegeneration; Neuromuscular junction; Neuroprotection