Researchers at Academia Sinica, the nation’s highest research institute, said yesterday they had found a possible cause for a progressive, fatal and incurable motor neuron disease.
The institute said that the cellular protein called TAR DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43) may be one of the causes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
James Shen (沈哲鯤), who led the research team, said a study done on mice found that problems or irregularities in unidentified genes led to a loss of function of TDP-43, which could be one of the things that trigger ALS.
ALS patients experience progressive muscle weakness, which eventually leads to loss of movement in voluntary muscles.
The finding is significant because TDP-43 is associated with nearly 86 percent of ALS cases worldwide. Prior to this finding, scientists had been unable to identify how the protein might play a role in causing ALS, said Wu Lien-szu (武蓮絲), who participated in the research.
Mutations in the gene that encodes the TDP-43 protein have also been identified in 4 percent of ALS patients with a family history of the disease, as well as in 1 percent of sporadic ALS cases, the institute said.
Although the research team is still far from finding a cure for the disease, Shen said, the next step is to identify which genes have become abnormal enough to cause the loss of function of TDP-43, thus leading to the dysfunction of motor neurons.
The study was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in June.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching