R.O.A.R. PROGRAM

Unfortunately, we found no evidence that Lunasin slowed, stopped or reversed ALS progression in this study, nor that it significantly influenced AcH3 or AcH4 histone acetylation patterns. Lunasin was associated with unexpected and common GI side effects in PALS, including two cases of obstipation/fecal impaction requiring hospitalization. Based on our results, we now doubt that the ALS reversal that originally caught our attention (9) was caused by Lunasin. This person may have had an undetected ALS mimic syndrome or some endogenous resistance to the disease (25). It is more difficult to explain why we could not confirm previous reports of Lunasin’s effect on AcH3 or AcH4 levels (2–5) or even previous reports of altered H3 acetylation in association with ALS itself relative to healthy controls (6). Possible explanations include the small sample size in our study, differences in the types of antibodies used to detect histone acetylation in the different studies, and differences in the way the histone data were analyzed (we normalized our AcH3 and AcH4 findings to total histone H3 levels while a previous study used b-actin levels to normalize acetylation of histone H3).

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We have published a review describing multiple biological mechanisms through which curcumin could influence ALS progression (8). In this study, we are going to focus on Theracurmin’s potential effects on the fecal microbiome.

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