Newswise — Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis typically kills its victims within three years, as the creeping paralysis takes over the body and steals people’s ability to move, speak, and breathe. Treatment options are woefully inadequate. However, the mood at the December 2015 International Symposium on ALS/MND was one of hope and optimism. Attendees celebrated new treatments to ease symptoms and preliminary results on modern therapeutics that might slow the disease. A drug used to treat stroke might help a subset of people with ALS, according to Japanese trials. Two new treatments for problems with speech, salivation, and swallowing promise to ease those distressing symptoms, and gene therapy results in a related disease, spinal muscular atrophy, were encouraging. Scientists have also developed new experiments to understand how the disease spreads from one body part to the next. Alzforum reports on these updates in a news series that reflects the changing landscape of ALS research.

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