Analysis of Human ALS Tissues and Registry of ALS Patients

Last updated: May 12, 2025
Sponsor: University of Illinois at Chicago
Overall Status: Active - Recruiting

Phase

N/A

Condition

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als)

Scar Tissue

Myasthenia Gravis (Chronic Weakness)

Treatment

N/A

Clinical Study ID

NCT05067179
2013-0748
097064
  • Ages 18-90
  • All Genders

Study Summary

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease, is a progressive, terminal condition of muscle weakness that is associated with degeneration of neurons in the spinal cord and brain. This devastating disorder afflicts people in the prime of their lives. At the present time, there are no cures for this disorder, and current treatments are marginal at best. Despite years of intensive research, a fundamental understanding of this disease is still lacking. There is a need to identify both reliable markers of disease progression and effective treatments. The goal of this research is to bring a greater understanding of ALS patients closer to the research studies that can lead to new hypotheses and approaches.

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients over the age of 18

  • Established diagnosis of ALS

  • Able and willing to give written informed consent and must authorize release and useof protected health information

Exclusion

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients below the age of 18

  • No diagnosis of ALS

Study Design

Total Participants: 40
Study Start date:
September 01, 2020
Estimated Completion Date:
August 30, 2025

Study Description

Patients will be approached during in-person or phone/online appointments and asked their consent to enter information and results from their physical examinations, electrodiagnostic testing, and other testing done as a standard of care and into a database to monitor disease progression and use them for research purposes. Also, the patients will be asked for consent to undergo a MRI scan.

In a second informed consent form, patients will be enrolled to perform a rapid postmortem autopsy and have the tissue banked for research purposes. It is important to keep the consents separate because some patients may not consent to this postmortem study, but would consent to the premortem studies.

The information gained from the premortem studies will be used during the postmortem examination to select tissue for further processing. Tissue from different regions, including brain, spinal cord, nerve and muscle will be processed in parallel for cellular and molecular analyses that include histology, immunostaining, in situ hybridization, protein, RNA, and small molecule analyses.

Connect with a study center

  • University of Illinois at Chicago

    Chicago, Illinois 60612
    United States

    Active - Recruiting

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