Yet another mysterious and lethal condition – amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – for which no treatment currently exists, may turn out to be nothing more than a symptom of hyper-active HPA axis, resulting in low gonadal androgen production, leading to muscle atrophy and eventually death. The findings of the study below corroborate the findings of prior animal studies showing that the administration of the strong androgen DHT may stop the condition or the very least dramatically prolong the survival of patients. If this is true, then a disease-modifying (or even curative) pharmacological treatment of ALS may be as simple as the administration of a combination of a cortisol blocker such as RU486 plus an androgens such as testosterone or (even better) a stronger and non-aromatizable androgen such as DHT. A side note to people reading the study – in rodents the dominant glucocorticoid is corticosterone, while in humans it is cortisol. So, elevated corticosterone in rodents is equivalent to elevated cortisol in humans.
https://doi.org/10.1210/en.2016-1244
“…The Wobbler mouse is an animal model for human motoneuron diseases, especially amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), used in the investigation of both pathology and therapeutic treatment. ALS is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, characterized by the selective and progressive death of motoneurons, leading to progressive paralysis. Previous limited studies have reported steroidal hormone dysregulation in Wobbler mouse and in ALS patients, suggesting endocrine dysfunctions which may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. In this study, we established a steroid profiling in brain, spinal cord, plasma, adrenal glands, and testes in 2-month-old male Wobbler mice and their littermates by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Our results show in Wobbler mice the following: 1) a marked up-regulation of corticosterone levels in adrenal glands, plasma, spinal cord regions (cervical, thoracic, lumbar) and brain; 2) a strong decrease in T levels in the testis, plasma, spinal cord, and brain; and 3) increased levels of progesterone and especially of its reduced metabolites 5α-dihydroprogesterone, allopregnanolone, and 20α-dihydroprogesterone in the brain, spinal cord, and adrenal glands. Furthermore, Wobbler mice showed a hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal hypoactivity. Interestingly, plasma concentrations of corticosterone and T correlate well with their respective levels in cervical spinal cord in both control and Wobbler mice. T down-regulation is probably the consequence of adrenal hyperactivity, and the up-regulation of progesterone and its reduced metabolites may correspond to an endogenous protective mechanism in response to motoneuron degeneration. Our findings suggest that increased levels of corticosterone and decreased levels of T in plasma could be a signature of motoneuron degeneration.”
