Major study shows gut microbes may impact course of ALS

A trailblazing study by Israeli researchers suggests that intestinal microbes may have a direct effect on the course of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the incurable, fatal neurodegenerative disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease that affected physicist Stephen Hawking. Published today in Nature, the study by researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science revealed that the progression of an ALS-like disease in lab mice was slowed after the mice received certain strains of gut microbes or substances known to be secreted by these microbes.

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Mounting evidence of the gut microbiome’s effect on brain function and disease is what prompted the Weizmann study. Further research must be done to determine whether regulating the gut microbiome might have the same effect in humans with ALS as it did with the mice. “Our long-standing scientific and medical goal is to elucidate the impact of the microbiome on human health and disease, with the brain being a fascinating new frontier,” said Prof. Eran Elinav of the Weizmann’s immunology department. Scientists in Elinav’s lab, working with colleagues in the lab of Prof. Eran Segal of the computer science and applied mathematics department, first demonstrated that the symptoms of an ALS-like disease in engineered mice worsened after these mice were given antibiotics to wipe out a substantial portion of their microbiome. In addition, the scientists found that ALS-prone mice had a hard time surviving when grown in germ-free conditions where they cannot develop a gut microbiome at all.-- More...

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