Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressing neurodegenerative disease that leads to death. No effective treatments are currently available. Based on data from epidemiological, etiological, laboratory, and clinical studies, I offer a new way of thinking about ALS and its treatment. This paper describes a host of extrinsic factors, including the exposome, that disrupt the extracellular matrix and protein function such that a spreading, prion-like disease leads to neurodegeneration in the motor tracts. A treatment regimen is described using the stem cell released molecules from a number of types of adult stem cells to provide tissue dependent molecules that restore homeostasis, including proteostasis, in the ALS patient. Because stem cells themselves as a therapeutic are cumbersome and expensive, and when implanted in a host cause aging of the host tissue and often fail to engraft or remain viable, only the S2RM molecules are used. Rebuilding of the extracellular matrix and repair of the dysfunctional proteins in the ALS patient ensues.