Pulmonary complications of influenza infection: a targeted narrative review.

Severe influenza infection represents a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality. Several clinical syndromes that involve a number of organs may be associated with Influenza infection. However, lower respiratory complications remain the most common and serious sequel of influenza infection.

Macrophage-mediated inflammation and glial response in the skeletal muscle of a rat model of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive motor dysfunction and loss of large motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain stem. While much research has focused on mechanisms of motor neuron cell death in the spinal cord, degenerative processes in skeletal muscle and neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) are also observed early in disease development. Although recent studies support the potential therapeutic benefits of targeting the skeletal muscle in ALS, relatively little is known about inflammation and glial responses in skeletal muscle and near NMJs, or how these responses contribute to motor neuron survival, neuromuscular innervation, or motor dysfunction in ALS.

Neuromuscular junction protection for the potential treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neuromuscular disease characterized by the progressive degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons (MNs), leading to muscular atrophy and eventual respiratory failure. ALS research has primarily focused on mechanisms regarding MN cell death; however, degenerative processes in the skeletal muscle, particularly involving neuromuscular junctions (NMJs), are observed in the early stages of and throughout disease progression. According to the "dying-back" hypothesis, NMJ degeneration may not only precede, but actively cause upper and lower MN loss.