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ALS United Mid-Atlantic Advances Research Initiatives at Temple University
Philadelphia, PA, continues to lead the nation in ALS research. In 2024, ALS United Mid-Atlantic approved funding for an important study at Temple University to better understand how neuroinflammation contributes to neurodegeneration for ALS patients.
This key project has the potential to guide scientists to search for new biomarkers in the progression of ALS and to develop more effective treatments for ALS in the future.
“We are excited to see the continued collaboration between scientists to advance ALS research in our region,” said Jeff Cline, Executive Director of ALS United Mid-Atlantic. “Temple University is contributing to a critical area for research that will help lead us towards better treatments for ALS patients.”
Examination of the role of neuroinflammation in ALS progression
Summary: Neuroinflammation has been shown to play a role in driving neurodegeneration in ALS. However, the actual role of microglia, the primary inflammatory cell in the brain, is unclear. In addition, the actual timing of immune system driven damage is unknown. This would be difficult to ascertain in people living with ALS as it would require brain biopsies during disease progression.
In an effort to explore neuroinflammation and its role in driving disease, the Temple lab has started to use a technique to obtain microglia from cells collected in a blood draw called peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Temple University researchers are using a recently developed technique that turns PBMCs into microglia-like cells. These cells, known as monocyte-derived microglia (MDMi), demonstrate several features of microglia from the brain in ALS autopsies. These features include changes in their microscopic appearance and the proteins that they express including accumulation of TDP43, a hallmark of ALS pathology. This suggests that MDMi cells from people with ALS will be an ideal minimally invasive way to assess neuroinflammation in symptomatic people.
More interestingly, other investigators have reported changes in cell characteristics that could predict the rate of progression. In this pilot study, Temple University will build on these studies to determine if there are changes over time in the inflammatory and microscopic appearance of MDMi cells during the course of ALS and if these can help to time treatments directed at neuroinflammation, provide biomarkers for prediction, or biomarkers of progression to be used as pharmacodynamics indicators.