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. 2018 Apr;15(4):3203-3210.
doi: 10.3892/etm.2018.5868. Epub 2018 Feb 14.

GEMALS: A promising therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Michel Geffard  1 , Arturo Mangas  1   2   3 , Denis Bedat  1 , Rafael Coveñas  3
Affiliations

GEMALS: A promising therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Michel Geffard et al. Exp Ther Med. 2018 Apr.

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that currently has no cure. At present, the only approved treatment for ALS is Riluzole, a glutamate release blocker that improves life expectancy by 3-6 months. ALS-Endotherapia (GEMALS) is a novel therapeutic approach to treat ALS and the aim of the present study was to investigate the potential beneficial effects of this novel treatment. A total of 31 patients with ALS were assessed in the current study. Deceleration of the disease was observed in 83.87% (P<0.0001) of patients and mean life expectancy was increased by 38 months. Motor functions, including breathing, walking, salivation, speech, swallowing and writing, were also improved in patients treated with GEMALS. The results of the present study demonstrate that long-term treatment with GEMALS has a curative effect in patients with ALS. Furthermore, the overall effectiveness of GEMALS was assessed using the ALS Assessment Questionnaire. The score improvement was 76.2 and 100% for men and women, respectively (P<0.0001), compared with the worldwide reference score. The present study provides a promising basis for the use of GEMALS as a therapeutic treatment for patients with ALS; however, these results must be confirmed in a double-blinded and randomized clinical trial.

Keywords: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; endotherapia; human; poly-L-lysine.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
(A) Proportion of patients that experienced deceleration, degradation and improvement. (B) Success and failure rates of treatment. n=31.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Mean change in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire score. M, patients treated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-endotherapia in the present study; R, worldwide reference score. An increase in life expectancy of 38 months was observed in patients treated with GEMALS (score M) in comparison with worldwide reference score (score R). ***P=0.0002.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Evolution of important motor functions according to in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Assessment Questionnaire score. (A) Speech, (B) salivation, (C) swallowing, (D) writing, (E) ability to cut food, (F) ability to dress, (G) ability to turn in bed, (H) walking, (I) ability to climb stairs and (J) breathing.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Disease evolution and sex. F, female; M, male. n=31.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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