Following an interruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Humanitas resumed enrolling patients for the new international clinical trial led by the Hospital’s specialists. The project, winner of the Horizon 2020 call for rare diseases and orphan drugs of the European Commission, involves a total of 25 European centers, 6 of which in Italy, with leading ALS experts. The Head of Humanitas Neurology Department, Pr. Alberto Albanese will lead the research team.
The study evaluates the drug Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), an experimental drug derived from bile acids, which has shown antiapoptotic properties able to counteract the degeneration of motor neurons affected by the disease.
A first pilot study, involving 60 patients in three Italian centers, has shown that taking TUDCA is safe and able to slow down the course of the disease, thus prolonging patient survival. The new international study, currently underway, will assess the therapeutic efficacy of TUDCA on a large scale in patients with ALS, a disease for which there is currently no cure.
