Published on Brain Stimulation the new study of neurologists UCBM in collaboration with the Catholic University
June 21, 2017 - A new, small hope for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis it could come on results of two preliminary studies. Cconducted by neurologists UCBM under guidance of the prof. Vincenzo Di Lazzaro - responsible forResearch Unit of Neurology, Neurophysiology and Neurobiology - have recently been published in the scientific journal Brain Stimulation and they demonstrated a lslight reduction in the rate of disease progression in patients treated with non-invasive brain stimulation techniques.
To date, unfortunately, there are no therapies available that can significantly slow down the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a serious neurodegenerative disease that is sadly famous because its victims include a significant number of professional footballers. One of the mechanisms that seems to play a fundamental role in the degenerative process is an excess of glutamate, a neurotransmitter that normally allows communication between neurons, but which above a certain activity threshold is toxic.
Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques using electromagnetic fields they can actually reduce the response of neurons to glutamate and therefore are potentially able to limit its toxicity. The first trials on the use of transcranial stimulation techniques to treat patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis began many years ago. The first study, published by the group of prof. Di Lazzaro way back in 2004, it had been conducted on a limited number of patients who underwent treatment one week a month, and had obtained a very slight reduction in the rate of progression of the disease. In new study, la duration of treatment was doubled and one more was observed mild, but more significant reduction in progression of illness.
However, the observation that opens up the greatest hopes was made in a single patient treated in an innovative way. In the latter, in fact, theimplantation of an electrode on the surface of the brain, corresponding to the area responsible for the movement and connected to a 'pacemaker' capable of modulating cerebral excitability on an ongoing basis. The patient treated is a doctor who generously decided to participate in this type of experimentation, which was more invasive and therefore more risky and whose results were unpredictable.
"Although a single observation has very limited value in evaluating the efficacy of new therapies, for which demonstration of positive effects in large numbers of patients is required - explains Di Lazzaro - the results of this study, published again on Brain Stimulation, look quite surprising. The doctor had begun to present the first symptoms in 2004, at the age of 56; before the start of the stimulation the disease had progressed so rapidly that a survival of no more than three years was expected. The cortical electrode was implanted in 2006 by neurosurgeons of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. After a prolonged period of stimulation, a marked reduction in disease progression was observed with a deterioration that, although not stopped, was extremely slower than expected. Today, 13 years after the onset of the disease, the doctor is still alivedespite requiring assisted ventilation".
