Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: State of the Art and Research Perspectives

There is a broad scientific consensus that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neuromuscular disease, is caused by gene-environment interactions. In fact, given that only about 10% of all ALS diagnosis has a genetic basis, gene-environmental interaction may give account for the remaining pe...

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Main Authors:	Trojsi, Francesca, Monsurrò, Maria Rosaria, Tedeschi, Gioacchino
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) 2013
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3759860/

id	pubmed-3759860
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-37598602013-09-03 Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: State of the Art and Research Perspectives Trojsi, Francesca Monsurrò, Maria Rosaria Tedeschi, Gioacchino Review There is a broad scientific consensus that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neuromuscular disease, is caused by gene-environment interactions. In fact, given that only about 10% of all ALS diagnosis has a genetic basis, gene-environmental interaction may give account for the remaining percentage of cases. However, relatively little attention has been paid to environmental and lifestyle factors that may trigger the cascade of motor neuron degeneration leading to ALS, although exposure to chemicals—including lead and pesticides—agricultural environments, smoking, intense physical activity, trauma and electromagnetic fields have been associated with an increased risk of ALS. This review provides an overview of our current knowledge of potential toxic etiologies of ALS with emphasis on the role of cyanobacteria, heavy metals and pesticides as potential risk factors for developing ALS. We will summarize the most recent evidence from epidemiological studies and experimental findings from animal and cellular models, revealing that potential causal links between environmental toxicants and ALS pathogenesis have not been fully ascertained, thus justifying the need for further research. Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) 2013-07-24 /pmc/articles/PMC3759860/ /pubmed/23887652 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms140815286 Text en © 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Trojsi, Francesca Monsurrò, Maria Rosaria Tedeschi, Gioacchino
spellingShingle	Trojsi, Francesca Monsurrò, Maria Rosaria Tedeschi, Gioacchino Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: State of the Art and Research Perspectives
author_facet	Trojsi, Francesca Monsurrò, Maria Rosaria Tedeschi, Gioacchino
author_sort	Trojsi, Francesca
title	Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: State of the Art and Research Perspectives
title_short	Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: State of the Art and Research Perspectives
title_full	Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: State of the Art and Research Perspectives
title_fullStr	Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: State of the Art and Research Perspectives
title_full_unstemmed	Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: State of the Art and Research Perspectives
title_sort	exposure to environmental toxicants and pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: state of the art and research perspectives
description	There is a broad scientific consensus that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neuromuscular disease, is caused by gene-environment interactions. In fact, given that only about 10% of all ALS diagnosis has a genetic basis, gene-environmental interaction may give account for the remaining percentage of cases. However, relatively little attention has been paid to environmental and lifestyle factors that may trigger the cascade of motor neuron degeneration leading to ALS, although exposure to chemicals—including lead and pesticides—agricultural environments, smoking, intense physical activity, trauma and electromagnetic fields have been associated with an increased risk of ALS. This review provides an overview of our current knowledge of potential toxic etiologies of ALS with emphasis on the role of cyanobacteria, heavy metals and pesticides as potential risk factors for developing ALS. We will summarize the most recent evidence from epidemiological studies and experimental findings from animal and cellular models, revealing that potential causal links between environmental toxicants and ALS pathogenesis have not been fully ascertained, thus justifying the need for further research.
publisher	Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
publishDate	2013
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3759860/
_version_	1612007709904732160

Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: State of the Art and Research Perspectives

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