Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Tissue Donation Program

Completed

Conditions studied: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Neurodegenerative Disease, Motor Neuron Disease

In brief

Despite significant progress in the identification of mechanisms involved in motor neuron degeneration in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and other motor system diseases, the actual pathogenesis and cause of these diseases remains unknown. Effective treatment of these diseases are dependent on the elucidation of their causes. The availability of diseased and control human tissues will be a critical resource for this research progress. . Samples of serum, spinal fluid, and urine from patients with motor system diseases can be used to study biochemical and genetic differences compared to tissues of neurologic disease controls and normal controls. Furthermore, the availability of autopsied CNS, PNS, as well as other tissues from patients with ALS or suspected ALS are useful for current and future research studies into the disease. Therefore, we propose to institute a Tissue Bank containing blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid donated from not only ALS and other motor neuron disease patients, but also those with other neurologic diseases and normals whose tissue can be used as controls. In addition there will be an autopsy band for post-mortem specimens of ALS and other motor neuron disease patients. Each specimen, whether from a living patient or autopsy will be de-identified and accompanied by a standard set of clinical information collected from the medical records in order that each specimen is characterized with the relevant clinical information to maximize the usefulness of the specimens. Once established, this tissue bank will provide a resource in which a large number of samples will be readily available and expedite research by circumventing the delays in collecting specimens prospectively. These specimens will be used for research in the ALS Center of Hope at Drexel University College of Medicine and shared with any outside investigator with a valid IRB approved protocol.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00716131

Run by

Drexel University College of Medicine

People needed

205

Starts

2007-04-01

Expected to finish

2016-11-01

Last updated by the study team

2017-01-06

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Diagnosed with ALS or other motor system disorder including PLS, Bulbar Palsy or Motor neuropathy
• Diagnosed with other chronic neurologic illnesses (Alzheimers, multiple sclerosis, migraines, etc)
• Normal Controls
• In the case of spinal fluid collection, the patient will be undergoing a diagnostic lumbar puncture as part of the work-up

You may not qualify if…

• Any person with a non-neurologic chronic and poorly controlled systemic illness

Where it is running

• MDA/ALS Center of Hope — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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