SOD1 and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the genetic removal of the mutant protein SOD1 in cell populations that are not usually vulnerable to the disease, such as astrocytes and microglia, was sufficient to delay the progression of the symptoms (Boillee et al., 2006; Yamanaka et al., 2008; Garden and La Spada, 2012).