Researchers from the University of Michigan published a new study in April that has identified a correlation between volatile chemicals stored in garages— such as gasoline, pesticides, paint, lawn care products and woodworking materials — and an increased likelihood of developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects brain and spinal cord nerve cells.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Stephen Goutman, the study’s first author and associate professor of neurology, explained the method the study used, which involved two groups of participants: ALS patients who visited the neurology clinic and control subjects recruited from the general Michigan population.
According to Goutman, researchers asked all 600 participants to provide information about their lifetime history of their exposure to volatile chemicals through surveys about where they lived, their workplaces and their hobbies, among other factors. Researchers also collected blood and tissue biosamples to analyze gene expression and participants’ response to the environment, and then stored the results for future studies.
Goutman said one way he and his team recruited participants for the study was speaking to clinic patients with ALS.
“We approach every individual, every patient that we see with ALS that comes into the clinic, and ask them to enroll in our study,” Goutman said. “In addition to that, we recruit individuals that are healthy controls from throughout the state of Michigan using a number of resources and use a number of recruitment sites affiliated with Michigan Medicine.”
Goutman said it is crucial for scientists to understand what increases susceptibility to ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases in order to devise risk-reducing strategies which will either modify these risk variables or develop therapeutic targets.
“It’s really important for us to really understand factors that increase one’s susceptibility to getting a disease or having a faster disease progression,” Goutman said. “So we can think about strategies to reduce risk factors for disease and also think about whether or not some of these risk factors are modifiable or have therapeutic targets that could lessen the risk of somebody going on to get ALS or reverse symptoms of ALS.”
In an interview with The Daily, Stuart Batterman, senior author of the study and professor of environmental health sciences, said the study’s findings can help individuals make informed decisions to limit their exposure to certain chemicals and potentially reduce their risk of developing ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases later in life.
“You have choices to make, because you can have those materials stored properly, and largely eliminate that potential exposure, and then reduce your risk of developing this and probably other diseases, as well,” Batterman said. “It’s a controllable type of exposure, and so we should take steps to limit that exposure.”
Batterman acknowledged that this study is only the first step in understanding the complex causes of ALS, and said further research is needed to see what other factors contribute to the likelihood of developing the disease.
“In the near term, we’re looking at exposures to pesticides and to other environmental chemicals and toxins,” Batterman said. “And what I hope is that we’ll be able to reproduce and confirm a lot of these results.”
LSA junior Tyson Fang, who worked as a clinical research assistant for Goutman, said he was motivated to get involved in the study after learning about the lack of effective ALS therapies.
“When I came to (the University), initially I wasn’t interested in neurodegenerative diseases,” Fang said. “ALS was one of the first ones that came up (when) I read more about the disorders. It was interesting that there wasn’t really a therapy that could prevent the disease. Once you get the disease, usually within five or 10 years, there’s death. I wanted to contribute to finding, hopefully, therapy or at least ways to prevent getting ALS.”
Goutman said he believes there is much to gain from further research on the causes of ALS, which will require more participation from individuals with ALS in future studies.
“We’re looking for people to be open to sharing information about them prospectively, so we can really understand this disease,” Goutman said. “(ALS) is a disease that can impact people in a tremendous way, but I think there’s a lot of hope out there. We’re really understanding the causes of ALS and having all these new therapeutic targets that are available for testing. So participate in research, help us understand this disease a little bit better.”
Staff Reporter Matilda Sophia Mottola can be reached at msophy@umich.edu.
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