Few diseases are as debilitating and inevitably lethal as amyotrophiclateral sclerosis (ALS). The disease typically strikes adultsin midlife, causing paralysis and death within five years. Thecause of most cases remains unknown, and the disease is untreatable.About 10 percent of patients have an inherited form of the disease.In 1993 a multicenter study reported that some cases of familialALS arise because of mutations in the gene encoding the cytosolicform of the enzyme copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1).1This enzyme detoxifies the superoxide anion, a ubiquitous byproductof aerobic metabolism. As a free radical (free to diffuse . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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