Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) - or Lou Gehrig's Disease - is a neuromuscular disease that attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain to the spinal cord. In simpler terms, it is a disease of the nerves that control the muscles.

It was through Lou Gehrig, the New York Yankee first baseman known as the "iron man" of baseball, that the devastating disease was brought into the public eye in the late 1930's. He contracted the disease during the prime of his life, and died from ALS in 1941 at the age of 37. Once thought a rare occurrence, according the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association (ALSA), 5,000 new cases of ALS are diagnosed each year - and it is projected that, of the U.S. population living today, in excess of 300,000 men and women will die from ALS unless a cure or prevention is found by research scientists.

Presently there is no known cure for ALS, however, recent genetic research with rare inherited forms has begun to offer exciting possibilities for truly understanding and perhaps treating ALS.

Two genes have now been located by genetic research that appear to be involved in the cause of ALS, and it is felt that oxygen radicals called reactive oxygen species (ROS) may play a major role in causing ALS. Since ROS are biological oxidants, new therapies for ALS may revolve around antioxidants.

Dr. Richard Wright, Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at the Webb-Waring Institute, and his colleagues, have cloned a gene for an enzyme called aldehyde oxidase (AOX) and they are looking it to determine what role AOX may have in the development of ALS. This research could be important to the understanding of ALS for several reasons. First, the association of two enzymes controlling ROS levels with ALS would strongly implicate ROS in the cause of ALS. Second, AOX could be involved in ALS through its capacity to synthesize specific factors needed for proper central nervous system development. Third, AOX can be specifically blocked with several drugs that may have minimal physiological side effects. Fourth, confirmation of the broad hypothesis that ALS is caused by ROS would suggest that strategies of antioxidant therapy could be evaluated for clinical significance.