The toxic relationship between ALS and frontotemporal dementia

Motor neurons (Image courtesy of the Ichida Lab)

ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are two neurodegenerative diseases with a toxic relationship, according to a new USC Stem Cell study published in Nature Medicine.

In the study, Yingxiao TK Shi and Shaoyu Sebastian Lin in the laboratory of Justin Ichida describe how a mutation in a gene, called C9ORF72, leads to toxicity in nerve cells—causing 10 percent of all cases of ALS, and an additional 10 percent of FTD.

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