[Similarities between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia]

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is characterized by degeneration of the frontal and temporal lobes. Classic symptoms include behavioural alterations and executive dysfunction. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease of the first and second motoneurones, as well as of cortical neurons, presenting with weakness and wasting of the limb, respiratory and bulbar muscles. Accumulation of a mis-localized protein in the neuronal cytoplasma is the main neuropathological marker of ALS but has also been described in certain FTD-variants. Molecules interfering specifically on this level of mis-localization and toxic aggregation may thus represent a very interesting therapeutic approach in both, ALS and FTD.