ALS

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ALS mean? 

• ALS (noun)
  The noun ALS has 1 sense:

1. thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord; results in progressive muscle atrophy that starts in the limbs

  Familiarity information: ALS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord; results in progressive muscle atrophy that starts in the limbs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

ALS; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Lou Gehrig's disease

Hypernyms ("ALS" is a kind of...):

nervous disorder; neurological disease; neurological disorder (a disorder of the nervous system)

induration; sclerosis (any pathological hardening or thickening of tissue)

 Context examples 

Also called: ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease

(Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive, lethal, degenerative disorder of motor neurons.

(Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

Most of the IGF-I in the circulation is bound to IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) in a ternary complex with acid-labile subunit (ALS); a smaller fraction is bound to the five other IGFBP.

(Food Intake and Energy Homeostasis Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) is the most common type of motor neuron disease.

(Motor neuron disease, NCI Dictionary)

Cdk5 is a gene that is important for the normal wiring of the brain during early development and may be involved in some neurodegenerative disorders, including ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

(NIH scientists search for the clocks behind aging brain disorders, National Institutes of Health)

In frontotemporal dementia and ALS, the proteins become permanently stuck as abnormally dense gels, trapping the RNA and making it unavailable for use.

(Mechanism behind neuron death in motor neurone disease and frontotemporal dementia discovered, University of Cambridge)

Interestingly, ATXN2 is the third gene found to be associated with both glaucoma and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

(Glaucoma-related genes revealed, NIH)

Inhibition of GH signal transduction results in decreased serum concentrations of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), and other GH-responsive serum proteins, including IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) and the acid-labile subunit (ALS), and may inhibit the growth of cancers in which IGF-1 is upregulated.

(Pegvisomant, NCI Thesaurus)

The results are based on experiments in which the researchers altered the activity of Cdk5, a gene that preclinical studies have suggested is important for early brain development and may be involved in neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

(New study implicates hyperactive immune system in aging brain disorders, National Institutes of Health)

Defects in cellular trafficking have been linked to other neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting that certain nerve cell pathways are particularly sensitive to impairment of this process.

(Study in mice identifies type of brain cell involved in stuttering, National Institutes of Health)