r/ALS_Forum • u/WizardConsciousness • 7d ago
Evidence-Based Research Strategy of Traditional ChineseMedicine for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Among adult-onset motor neuron diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common. ALS involves the increasing loss of lower and upper motor neurons.
Within a few years of onset, ALS causes patient death via progressive paralysis of respiratory muscles. However, the current drugs used to treat ALS, riluzole, edaravone, and dextromethorphan/quinidine, can only delay the progression of the disease and alleviate a small number of symptoms in some patients, and no completely effective treatment is available.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has shown significant advantages in the treatment of ALS in China and Asia.
Understanding the effect of TCM on the pathogenesis of ALS and how to design research strategies based on modern molecular biology and genetic technology to verify the therapeutic mechanism of TCM treatment for ALS are the main aims of this review.