A disease like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can be hard to understand, but a U of M researcher says it helps if you picture a tree.<\/p>\n
If you strip the bark off a tree, it will die \u2013 right down to the root. The tree is lost forever, says Michael Namaka [B.Sc. Pharm\/91, M.Sc. Pharm\/97, PhD\/00]<\/strong>, a professor in the College of Pharmacy and a lifelong Manitoban.<\/p>\n A human nerve, he says, is like a tree. Its \u201cwhite matter,\u201d the nerve\u2019s myelin coating, is the bark. If the white matter is gone, the root \u2013 the motor neuron \u2013 cannot survive.<\/p>\n Our bodies are made up of entire forests of these trees, but the number isn\u2019t infinite. And unlike in a forest, no new trees spring up to replace the old. As each motor neuron dies, the patient experiences a permanent loss.<\/p>\n First movement is affected, with muscle weakness and then paralysis. Ultimately, the patient can\u2019t breathe and dies of respiratory failure. The progression is quick. Most ALS patients survive two to five years after their diagnosis. \u201cThere aren\u2019t many drugs on the market to treat ALS,\u201d says Namaka, a neuroimmunologist. \u201cAnd at best they have marginal benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n To carry the tree metaphor a little further, Namaka is an expert when it comes to bark. But his background is in multiple sclerosis (MS) \u2013 another disease that involves white matter.<\/p>\n The difference is with MS, the white matter isn\u2019t stripped away. Instead, it develops holes. Damage to the \u201ctree\u201d is slower and manifests differently. MS comes and goes, relapsing and remitting, affecting a patient throughout a much longer lifespan. The similarity between the two diseases, and possibility the key to a cure, is in the white matter.<\/p>\n \u201cIn ALS, we believe that if you can block the white-matter damage that may be occurring prior to the motor-neuron death, we may be able to extend the life of these motor neurons to keep people healthy,\u201d says Namaka. \u201cAt that point you\u2019re not just managing a disease, you are stopping the thing that causes the decay in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n Namaka is excited to be involved with research that may be at the forefront of a cure. But he\u2019s equally encouraged to be part of an interprofessional team at the university, a situation that\u2019s happening more and more. He points out that the lead on the ALS project is from the university\u2019s department of human anatomy and cell science, Dr. Jiming Kong. With a $1.7 million grant from the ALS Society, Kong\u2019s intention was to build a team with the right expertise, no matter which unit is the researcher\u2019s home base.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of us need to get out of our silos,\u201d says Namaka. \u201cSo far, there haven\u2019t been great strides in a cure for ALS. But if we take my expertise in white matter and pain, which I gained through my work around MS, we can apply that to ALS. By partnering with Dr. Kong, we have an opportunity to open even more doors.\u201d<\/p>\n A disease like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can be hard to understand, but a U of M researcher says it helps if you picture a tree. If you strip the bark off a tree, it will die \u2013 right down to the root. The tree is lost forever, says Michael Namaka [B.Sc. Pharm\/91, M.Sc. Pharm\/97,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/16"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}BY ANNETTE ELVERS<\/strong><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"