The simple act of running in an exercise wheel delays the onset of some symptoms of Huntington's disease in a mouse model of the fatal human disorder according to research published in the open-access journal BMC Neuroscience.
These findings add insights into the pathogenesis of the disease and suggest possible preventive therapeutic targets.
Huntington's disease affects up to one person in every 10 000, but clusters in families and certain populations. Affected people develop clusters of a defective protein in their neurons and shrinkage of brain areas associated with movement. The disorder causes disability and eventually death, but does not normally manifest until after people have had children, allowing the disease gene to be passed on.
“Although Huntington's disease is considered the epitome of genetic determinism, environmental factors are increasingly recognised to influence the disease progress”, the researchers write.