ROME, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Italian researchers say they have found the genes responsible for Lou Gehrig's disease.
Sebastiano Cavallaro said he and his team at a National Research Council lab in Catania found 57 genes responsible for the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, after analyzing 44,000 genes in a group of patients with the fatal disease, ANSA reported.
Cavallaro said a number of other factors are involved in the disease, but he said the gene research "could pave the way for early diagnosis and possible treatment," ANSA said.
ALS kills more than 100,000 people worldwide annually, ANSA said. While commonly known in the United States as Lou Gehrig's disease -- after the Hall of Fame baseball player who succumbed to it in 1941 -- it has gained attention recently in Italy because of the high ALS rate among former soccer players.
