Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease with progressive loss of motor neurons. Insufficiency of neurotrophic factors is suspected to underlie the disease, but direct eviden Show more
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease with progressive loss of motor neurons. Insufficiency of neurotrophic factors is suspected to underlie the disease, but direct evidence remains scarce. In this study, we discover that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) val/met mutation, which results in a decrease in BDNF secretion, reduces survival time of ALS patients in two separate cohorts. Using a knockin mouse model of the ALS causal gene FUS Show less