According to a study from the Karolinska Institutet published in Nature Communications, it is possible to gauge how quickly the disease might advance by counting immune cells in the cerebral fluid after diagnosing ALS.
The devastating disease ALS attacks the nerve cells, paralyzing the voluntary muscles and causing death. In a recent study, scientists at the Karolinska Institutet found a mechanism to forecast how the disease will progress in ALS patients.
Researchers gathered fresh blood and cerebral fluid from 89 individuals in Stockholm who had just received an ALS diagnosis between March 2016 and March 2020. Patient monitoring will continue until October 2020.
According to the findings of the study, a low survival rate is associated with a high proportion of cells that are referred to as effector T cells. While this is happening, a high percentage of activated regulatory T cells suggests that they play a protective role against the rapid progression of the disease. The findings provide new evidence for the involvement of T cells in the course of the disease and show that certain types of effector T cells accumulate in the cerebrospinal fluid of ALS patients. In addition, the findings show that certain types of effector T cells accumulate in the cerebrospinal fluid of ALS patients.
Solmaz Yazdani, a doctorate candidate at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet and the study’s first author, adds that the research “may contribute to the development of new medicines that target immune cells to slow down the course of the disease.”
Her research will now focus on how T cells affect the progression of the illness.
“We intend to take samples from these people in order to track how the immune cells evolve over time.” “In order to comprehend the role effector T cells play in ALS, we also wish to investigate them more thoroughly.”
The Ulla-Carin Lindquist Foundation for ALS Research, Neuro, King Gustaf V’s, and Queen Victoria’s Masonic Foundation, among other organizations, provided funding for the study.
