Is glutamate to blame for the death of motor neurons in ALS? · Grey Matter

Partly, at most.

Is glutamate to blame for the death of motor neurons in ALS?

Partly, at most. Excess glutamate signalling can overload neurons with calcium and kill them, and that idea led to riluzole, a drug that dampens glutamate release and was the first treatment for ALS. Its effect is modest: in the trials it raised median survival by about two to three months, from 11.8 to 14.8 months. That suggests excitotoxicity contributes without being the whole story, and the clumps of TDP-43 protein found in almost every case point to a deeper failure inside the neurons.