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Full-Text Articles in Nervous System Diseases
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Anastasia M. Georgetson
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Anastasia M. Georgetson
Student Publications
The word amyotrophic is derived from Greek, and means “without nourishment to muscles”, lateral means to the sides and sclerosis means hardened (“What is ALS?,” n.d.). First described by Jean-Martin Charcot in the 1800s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive degenerative motor neuron disease. Motor neurons are very important cells, and extremely unique since they can be very long with some motor neurons having a length of over a meter (“Disease Mechanisms,” n.d.).
About 5-10% of the cases of ALS are inherited, which is known as familial ALS or fALS, and it is known as autosomal dominant in these …