P2RX7 and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: During the progression of ALS, microglia, astrocytes, and motor neurons might enter in crosstalk via ATP release/degradation and P2X7 activation, generating a feedback loop that drives the sustained pro-inflammatory and detrimental response (Amadio et al., 2011;Volonte et al., 2011) which is prevented by P2X7 antagonists (D’Ambrosi et al., 2009;Gandelman et al., 2010).