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Was the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge successful?
Videos of people from around the world accepting the challenge, and challenging their friends, took the internet by storm, earning tens of millions of views across every social media platform. The challenge has been lauded as one of the most successful social fundraising efforts of all time.
What is the cold water challenge?
— — If you keep seeing people dump buckets of ice cold water on themselves, you’re not alone. But it’s more than just an excruciating game – the social media stunt aims to raise awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease), according to Patrick Quinn, who suffers from the disease.
Why is it so hard to find a cure for ALS?
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is proving intractable. Difficulties in pre-clinical studies contribute in small measure to this futility, but the chief reason for failure is an inadequate understanding of disease pathogenesis.
Could the Ice Bucket Challenge help us better treat ALS?
The Mass General researchers will track how the patients taking the medication do in the long term. Paganoni credited the Ice Bucket Challenge for getting her study and others going. “The Ice Bucket Challenge was an important turning point in the fight against ALS,” she said.
Could this new discovery revolutionize treatment of ALS?
New discovery may revolutionize treatment of ALS. The study demonstrates that the SOD1 protein (superoxide dismutase 1), which has been shown to be implicated in the ALS disease process, exhibits prion-like properties. The research found that SOD1 participates in a process called template-directed misfolding.
Boston Globe via Getty Images Internet cynics are eating their words over news that a viral stunt actually raised more than $200 million for medical research — and prompted a promising new treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Is there a cure for ALS?
The discovery is significant because, to date, there is no cure or effective treatment for ALS, a progressive neuromuscular disease caused by deterioration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Individuals living with the disease experience progressive paralysis, including the muscles involved in breathing and swallowing.