Researchers at Penn's School of Medicine have discovered a major protein related to Lou Gehrig's disease and a type of dementia.
Lou Gehrig's disease, formally known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, causes degeneration of the brain.
Penn researchers found that patients with this disease and a type of dementia - marked by the degeneration of the brain's frontal lobe - abnormally store up a specific protein.
This discovery provides the first connection between the two diseases, though scientists have long suspected that such a link exists.
Researchers say the uncovering of the protein will open up opportunities for examining why patients with these diseases develop certain behavioral changes.
