Identification of the isomer of methionine sulfoximine that extends the lifespan of the SOD1 G93A mouse.

In previous studies methionine sulfoximine (MSO) significantly extended the lifespan of the SOD1 G93A mouse model for ALS. Those studies used commercially available MSO, which is a racemic mixture of the LS and LR diastereomers, leaving unanswered the question of which isomer was responsible for the therapeutic effects. In this study we tested both purified isomers and showed that the LS isomer, a well-characterized inhibitor of glutamine synthetase, extends the lifespan of these mice, but the LR isomer, which has no known activity, does not.