Can a single strand of hair diagnose a life-threatening disease? Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed an amazing method to detect Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). They decoded samples of metals and other elements in hair strands and found signals that clearly distinguish patients with ALS from healthy individuals.
This discovery promises a revolutionary breakthrough in ALS diagnostics, as it offers a fast, non-invasive, and accessible tool, whereas today’s methods are slow, expensive, and traumatic.
On average, there are 4-6 cases of ALS per 100,000 population. This is a neurological disease that damages motor neurons, the nerve cells that control muscle function. It causes progressive muscle weakness and paralysis, which leads to death for most patients within 2-5 years of diagnosis, and only a small number live for more than 10 years. Given the great potential for early diagnostics, the search for biomarkers (biological signs that detect the disease early) has been actively ongoing.
Until now, most of these biomarkers required invasive and expensive procedures, such as cerebrospinal fluid analysis or imaging studies. Using hair is a clever approach because it grows slowly and stores information about changes in the body’s elements without any needles or scans. This non-invasive method will help doctors diagnose ALS more quickly and start treatment in a timely manner.
Study Details:
The research team studied individual hair strands from 391 people. This included 295 patients with ALS and 96 healthy volunteers. Using the advanced technology of Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), they accurately measured the levels of 17 elements, including copper, zinc, magnesium, and lead.
The main finding of the study is a disturbance in copper metabolism in people with ALS. Normally, copper acts in coordination with zinc and other elements, but in patients with ALS, this interaction is less synchronous. Since copper is essential for nerve functions, this imbalance may be related to the progression of the disease. It is noteworthy that hair analysis showed different patterns in men and women, which indicates that ALS may have sex-specific characteristics.
The study found that compared to healthy individuals, ALS patients show a “collapse” in copper connections and networks. This indicates that systemic copper function is disrupted throughout the body. Since copper is involved in key neural proteins related to ALS progression, studying these elemental disturbances may help create new therapies.
According to the study, differences were also found in other elements (chromium, nickel, tin, zinc), which suggests that ALS is likely associated with a complex imbalance of metals.
The research results and the innovative approach offer a new perspective on ALS biomarkers. Researchers note that further validation in different populations is needed before the hair test can be converted into a clinical tool. It is also necessary to refine its accuracy and study its potential as a diagnostic tool in conjunction with other biomarkers.
Source: eBioMedicine
