John Hemming's Web Log

I tend to ask chatGPT for a summary of the transcript of videos so that I don't have to spend the time watching them. I have done this for the ALS Scientific Advisory Council from about a month ago which follows (the critique is of chatGPT - my critique is that they don't talk about mitochondria, the closest they come to epigenetics is DNA methylation): International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations Scientific Advisory Council Webinar – Transcript Summary Opening & Housekeeping Jessica Mabe (Programs Coordinator, International Alliance) welcomed attendees and introduced the webinar, noting caption availability (via Zoom chat or QR code) and thanking sponsor Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma . The Scientific Advisory Council Chair & Moderator: Dr Nicholas Cole (Head of Research, MND Association, UK) Panelists: Dr Kuldip Dave – Vice President of Research, ALS Association (USA) Dr Nadia Sethi – Co‑chair, NE...

I think it is useful to try to identify: a) The most heavily energy using neurons b) The balance in those cells between OxPhos (which produces Reactive Oxygen Species - ROS) and Glycolysis I will be using various LLMs to search for information relating to this and will be spending time checking the responses for hallucinations, but I may not at the time of you reading this page finished validating everything. I will also be concentrating on validating the analysis for dopaminergic and motor neurons because those are the neurons which cause PD and ALS/MND. In principle the rank is not really valid. Although this table is produced using a ranking that is not going to be reliable, it is still useful. What I am trying to get from this is to identify the cells which would be vulnerable to rapid deterioration through ROS. The first step is those with a high energy usage. This, however, I would expect to vary from time to time and any actual accurate calculation for one human being ...

Regular readers of my blog will have seen that I think there is solid evidence that some neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS (MND) and Parkinsons are caused by a deterioration of mitochondrial DNA primarily because of damage by free radicals (Reactive Oxygen Species - ROS) in the cells. This gradually causes the cells to fail to produce the right proteins and the cells stop working. I think the reason this happens in ALS (MND) and Parkinson's disease is that the cells that suffer are ones which both have a high energy demand, but also make high use of Oxidative Phosphorylation (OxPhos). Hence the mitochondria generate damaging molecules at higher rate which damages the mitochondria at a higher rate than normal. Cells have systems to deal with this, but once it gets to a certain point the deterioration becomes more rapid. Cells in the Central Nervous System have a supply of melatonin via the CerebroSpinal Fluid (CSF) that helps to resist this, but if there is a shortage for...

Given the links between mtDNA damage, splicing, ALS (MND) and PD, an obvious thing to look at is Multiple Sclerosis. MS is a failure of the myelin sheaf. It has been thought to be as a result of an auto-immnue response, but an alternative perspective would be a failure of homeostasis. I thought I would ask chatGPT to look at both sides of the argument about splicing and this is the response: chatGPT O3 response to question: " what are the arguments for and against multiple sclerosis resulting from aberrant splicing in the production of myelin " The summary result from chatGPT is: Bottom line The case for aberrant splicing in myelin production as a contributor to MS is biologically plausible and experimentally supported, but the case against it being the primary cause remains strong. At present, the weight of population genetics and virology favours a model in which immune dysregulation (often EBV-driven) comes first, with myelin-splice errors acti...