Using stress to fight ALS and dementia

Researchers have developed a method that could offer new therapies to patients of a debilitating disease that gradually wastes away their muscles and kills them. The discovery can help prevent the death of nerve cells in ALS and also in dementia.

In 10 seconds? By mobilising so-called heat-shock proteins (HSP), researchers have shown that misfolded, toxic proteins can be re-folded and cleared from nerve cells. It’s the death of nerve cells that leads to the paralysis and death of thousands of ALS patients every year.