In addition, these authors showed that in a transgenic rat model of ALS the chronic intraspinal infusion of exogenous human wt-SOD1 significantly delayed disease progression suggesting a novel extracellular role for SOD1 in ALS; therefore extracellular delivery of human wt-SOD1 could improve clinical disease in transgenic ALS rats supporting a novel extracellular role for mutant and wt-SOD1 in ALS pathogenesis and therapy, respectively. The gene discussed is SOD1; the disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.