Patent ID: 7902185

Claim:
A method of assessing whether a subject is afflicted with a neurodegenerative disease selected from the group consisting of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, prion associated disease, spinal muscular atrophy, spinal cerebellar ataxia, and spinal cord injury, the method comprising, comparing: the level of proteasome activity in a test sample from a subject, by measuring the expression levels in the test sample of at least one proteasome subunit selected from the group consisting of LMP-2, LMP-7 and MECL-1, and a normal level of proteasome activity for said at least one proteasome subunit, wherein a significant difference between the level of proteasome activity in the test sample and the normal level is an indication that the subject is afflicted with a neurodegenerative disease.