John1
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A new lithium based therapy for ALS was announced recently at a conference in Rome. The release is in Italian at:
http://www.diregiovani.it/gw/producer/dettaglio.aspx?id_doc=5490
I ran it through Google translator to English and then took a stab at editing the very rough output to make it more readable. I speak no Italian so my interpretation may be faulty. Results follow:
(SAY) Rome, 8 November. A new therapy can slow down the progress of ALS through the use of drugs based on lithium salts. The development team is composed of Italian scholars and researchers of Santa Lucia di Roma, Neuromed and the University of Pisa.
The news was given today during the 34th meeting of the Italian League for the Fight Against Parkinson's Disease by the same scholars, who, for 15 months, have applied the new therapy on a group of 16 patients. "In total- says Francis Bakeries, a researcher at the University of Pisa, one of the authors- the project involved 48 [ALS] patients for a period of 15 months: 16 took lithium salts with riluzole, the other 32 only riluzole" . After testing 15 months researchers have found a mortality rate of zero on patients treated with lithium salts. "The patients -explains Fornai- had been diagnosed with ALS already for a year and a high percentage had the most aggressive form of the disease,i.e. bulbar". In the other 32 patients, however, the rate of mortality "was 30%". In patients treated with lithium, then, "there was not any significant progression- continues Fornai- while in others there has been a decline of 50% in the first 3 months.
Patients were recruited from the Mediterranean neurological and neurological clinic in Pisa. The treatment is based on the following principle: the lithium could accelerate the removal mechanisms of protein and altered mitochondria and promote the genesis of new mitochondria. Another 100 patients are currently under care in a further study of the drug. Researchers will recruit others while awaiting the publication of the first results. "With this therapy is given a hope to the ill- Stefano Ruggieri, Neuromed- thanks to a drug that, among other things, costs very little."
http://www.diregiovani.it/gw/producer/dettaglio.aspx?id_doc=5490
I ran it through Google translator to English and then took a stab at editing the very rough output to make it more readable. I speak no Italian so my interpretation may be faulty. Results follow:
(SAY) Rome, 8 November. A new therapy can slow down the progress of ALS through the use of drugs based on lithium salts. The development team is composed of Italian scholars and researchers of Santa Lucia di Roma, Neuromed and the University of Pisa.
The news was given today during the 34th meeting of the Italian League for the Fight Against Parkinson's Disease by the same scholars, who, for 15 months, have applied the new therapy on a group of 16 patients. "In total- says Francis Bakeries, a researcher at the University of Pisa, one of the authors- the project involved 48 [ALS] patients for a period of 15 months: 16 took lithium salts with riluzole, the other 32 only riluzole" . After testing 15 months researchers have found a mortality rate of zero on patients treated with lithium salts. "The patients -explains Fornai- had been diagnosed with ALS already for a year and a high percentage had the most aggressive form of the disease,i.e. bulbar". In the other 32 patients, however, the rate of mortality "was 30%". In patients treated with lithium, then, "there was not any significant progression- continues Fornai- while in others there has been a decline of 50% in the first 3 months.
Patients were recruited from the Mediterranean neurological and neurological clinic in Pisa. The treatment is based on the following principle: the lithium could accelerate the removal mechanisms of protein and altered mitochondria and promote the genesis of new mitochondria. Another 100 patients are currently under care in a further study of the drug. Researchers will recruit others while awaiting the publication of the first results. "With this therapy is given a hope to the ill- Stefano Ruggieri, Neuromed- thanks to a drug that, among other things, costs very little."
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