Green Tea may help fight Lou Gherig’s disease

Lou Gherig’s disease, formally known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), is perhaps the best known in a family of neuromuscular diseases that affect around 3,000 Canadians a year.

It is generally fatal. But, like many medical mysteries, researchers are progressing towards eventual treatment and cure.

The latest advance has been contributed by Joseph McNeil, 18, a Grade 12 student at the Richmond Academy in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

He has opened a new line of investigation into ALS with the results of a project into the use of green tea as an aid to motor neuron growth.

Joseph tested different concentrations of two green tea chemicals – one, an anti-oxidant, the other an amino acid – on the cultured motor neurons of mice, looking at the chemicals’ impact over different periods of time. Among his results: an increase in cellular growth by 16 to 30 per cent.

The results show definite promise, but it was the quality and substance of Joseph’s presentation that won him the 2009 Nova Scotia regional Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge.

Joseph has been working for the past two years with Drs. Victor Rafuse and Alli Murugesan of the Anatomy and Neurobiology Laboratory at Dalhousie University, Halifax, developing lab skills and refining his research focus.

Dr. Rafuse, whose laboratory developed mice motor neurons cell cultures, called it “intriguing” that Joseph obtained such promising results. “Right now we can show that neurons respond in a positive manner – they grow better, they look healthier.”

Joseph is excited to start his undergraduate degree at Dalhousie next year and feels his SABC will be a tremendous boost no matter what career path he chooses.