An autoimmune component for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been suspected but without conclusive evidence. Michaelis et al. report that ALS is associated with C9orf72-specific CD4+ T cells that produce IL-4, IL-5 and IL-10.

The authors isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from individuals with ALS and found no notable differences in CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets compared to controls, but individuals with ALS had lower frequencies of T helper 1-like cells.