Another commonly used technique is the utilization of small-molecule ligands. These can be used to target G-quadruplex regions that cause neurological disorders. Approximately 1,000 various G-quadruplex ligands exist in which they are able to interact via their aromatic rings; this allows the small-molecule ligands to stack on the planar terminal tetrads within the G-quadruplex regions. A disadvantage of using small-molecule ligands as a therapeutic technique is that specificity is difficult to manage due to the variability of G-quadruplexes in their primary sequences, orientation, thermodynamic stability, and nucleic acid strand stoichiometry. As of now, no single small-molecule ligand has been able to be perfectly specific for a single G-quadruplex sequence. However, a cationic porphyrin known as TMPyP4 is able to bind to the C9orf72 GGGGCC repeat region, which causes the G-quadruplex repeat region to unfold and lose its interactions with proteins causing it to lose its functionality. Small-molecule ligands, composed primarily of lead, can target GGGGCC repeat regions as well and ultimately decreased both repeat-associated non-ATG translation and RNA foci in neuron cells derived from patients with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This provides evidence that small-molecule ligands are an effective and efficient process to target GGGGCC regions, and that specificity for small-molecule ligand binding is a feasible goal for the scientific community.