Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0026838 (spasticity)
 6,471 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a typical intractable disease affecting the primary and secondary motoneurones resulting in generalized muscular atrophy and weakness with or without spasticity. Dysphagia, dysarthria, and respiratory difficulty are symptoms which cause restriction of ADL and death. Recent achievement in understanding neuronal death in ALS has invited trials on various drugs aiming at neuroprotection and prolongation of the course of ALS. They include inhibition of excitotoxicity of amino acids, suppression of free radicals by lecithinized SOD and various neurotrophic factors. Significant prolongation of life span was obtained by riluzole in a US-Europe trial, but the effects were insignificant in the Japanese nation-wide trial.
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PMID:[Neuroprotective therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)]. 912 96

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease manifested by progressive muscle atrophy and paralysis due to the loss of upper and lower motoneurons (MN). Spasticity appears in ALS patients leading to further disabling consequences. Loss of the inhibitory tone induced by downregulation of the potassium chloride cotransporter 2 (KCC2) in MN has been proposed to importantly contribute to the spastic behavior after spinal cord injury (SCI). The aim of the present study was to test whether the alterations in the expression of KCC2 are linked to the appearance of spasticity in the SOD(G93A) ALS murine model. We compared SOD(G93A) mice to wild type mice subjected to SCI to mimic the spinal MN disconnection from motor descending pathways, and to sciatic nerve lesion to mimic the loss of MN connectivity to muscle. Electrophysiological results show that loss of motor function is observed at presymptomatic stage (8 weeks) in SOD(G93A) mice but hyperreflexia and spasticity do not appear until a late stage (16 weeks). However, KCC2 was not downregulated despite MN suffered disconnection both from muscles and upper MNs. Further experiments revealed decreased gephyrin expression, as a general marker of inhibitory systems, accompanied by a reduction in the number of Renshaw interneurons. Moreover, 5-HT fibers were increased in the ventral horn of the lumbar spinal cord at late stage of disease progression in SOD1(G93A) mice. Taken together, the present results indicate that spasticity appears late in the ALS model, and may be mediated by a decrease in inhibitory interneurons and an increase of 5-HT transmission, while the absence of down-regulation of KCC2 could rather indicate an inability of MNs to respond to insults.
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PMID:Differential effects on KCC2 expression and spasticity of ALS and traumatic injuries to motoneurons. 2447 30