Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is one of the most devastating motor system neurodegenerative
diseases, causing around 10,000 deaths each year. The neuropathology of ALS is mostly confined to motor neurons in the cerebral cortex, motor nuclei of the brainstem, and anterior horns of the spinal cord leading to muscle weakness. The major goals in treating ALS currently are to recognize the disease early in order to initiate appropriate therapy and delay functional and cognitive losses. Upon the discovery of the mutated SOD1 in ALS, many hypotheses have been proposed on how mutant SOD1 could cause neurodegeneration, including aberrant redox chemistry, mitochondrial damage, excitotoxicity, microglial activation and inflammation, as well as SOD1 aggregation. Recently, the implication of biocompatible nanotechnologies has set the stage for an evolutionary leap in diagnostic imaging and therapy. In this scope, the book presents a comprehensive overview of the possible causes, diagnostic criteria, and treatment assessments of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and presents the recent findings using innovative, highly sensitive, and novel diagnostic molecular imaging approaches. In addition, the book offers new perspectives of an innovative and recently developed approach in neuroimaging using surface-enhanced nanoimaging microscopy, which can be a promising technique for early diagnosis and treatment assessments.
About the Editor:
Prof. Lina Machtoub received her Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, Japan, 2002, after she was granted honourable research fellowship from the Japanese Government for 5 years. In 2003, she joined Max Planck Institute, Germany, after she was granted a research award from Alexander von Humboldt foundation. In the institute, she worked on the development of combined ultra-high magnetic field and optical imaging. In 2006, she became visiting scientist at Harvard Medical University, Boston. Since 2007, she has participated in several clinical research projects focusing on the development of clinical multimodal imaging techniques based on nanobiotechnology. In 2009, she joined the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, where she conducted research on developing highly sensitive, diagnostic, and targeted imaging probes with implications of in vivo imaging-targeted contrast agents and multifunctional imaging. Her main project was the development of innovative diagnostic approach “surface-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (SECARS) microscopy” using nanoscale contrast agents for magnetic resonance.
