Huntington's Disease News and Research

Latest Huntington's Disease News and Research

Patterns unique to the striatum observed in people with Huntington's disease

The part of the brain that selectively degenerates in people with Huntington's disease (HD), called the striatum, is almost entirely destroyed in the late stages of the disease. Brain samples from mutant HD gene positive individuals who had not yet developed symptoms by time of death are extremely rare. As a consequence, very little is known about the active disease process that causes the devastating symptoms of HD.

21 Oct 2019

UCLA research identifies potential strategy that may halt Huntington's disease

A new study examining the role that star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes play in Huntington's disease has identified a potential strategy that may halt the disease and repair some of the damage it causes.

16 Oct 2019

New technology helps trace the origin of Huntington's disease

The first signs of Huntington's, an inherited disease that slowly deteriorates bodies and minds, don't typically surface until middle age.

18 Sep 2019

Apathy can be used as biomarker of Huntington's disease progression

Researchers from the brain cognition and plasticity group of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute and the Neuroscience Institute of the University of Barcelona have led an innovative study that identifies modifications in the connectivity of cerebral white matter associated with the heterogeneous nature of apathy in Huntington's disease, making it possible to use this syndrome as a biomarker of disease progression.

6 Sep 2019

Salk researchers develop new gene-editing tool to target broad range of mutations, cell types

The ability to edit genes in living organisms offers the opportunity to treat a plethora of inherited diseases. However, many types of gene-editing tools are unable to target critical areas of DNA, and creating such a technology has been difficult as living tissue contains diverse types of cells.

26 Aug 2019

Prion disease in mice treated successfully with antisense oligonucleotides

Prion proteins are known to cause scrapie – a neurodegenerative condition. It is capable of debilitating damage to the nervous system. Researchers have successfully devised a treatment for this condition which prolonged the lives of the lab mice infected with the prions.

1 Aug 2019

Nanoparticles used to deliver CRISPR gene editing tools into the cell

Researchers from Tufts University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a novel method to effectively deliver the CRISPR/Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) associated protein 9) gene editing tools into the liver for genetic studies.

15 Jul 2019

Researchers develop first blood-brain barrier chip using stem cells

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles have, for the first time, duplicated a patient's blood-brain barrier, creating a human BBB chip with stem cells, which can be used to develop personalized medicine and new techniques to research brain disorders.

13 Jun 2019

Study searches for the origins of depressive symptoms in Huntington's disease

About 40% of the affected patients with Huntington's disease -a neurodegenerative pathology- show depression symptoms, even in early stages before the apparition of the typical motor symptoms of the disease.

31 May 2019

Study sheds light on design of pharmacological strategies to treat depression in Huntington's disease

About 40 % of the affected patients with Huntington's disease -a neurodegenerative pathology- show depression symptoms, even in early stages before the apparition of the typical motor symptoms of the disease.

31 May 2019

Newly discovered mechanism sheds light on how Parkinson’s disease can spread in the brain

Tiny channels between nerve cells are involved in a newly discovered mechanism of how Parkinson's disease can spread throughout the brain, according to new research from Linköping University, Sweden.

27 May 2019

Study discovers origin of neurofibromas that develop throughout the skin of NF1 patients

A study published today in PLOS ONE discovered the origin of severely disfiguring masses of cells, called neurofibromas, that gradually develop throughout the skin of patients afflicted with Neurofibromatosis 1.

22 May 2019

Study explores why people at risk for Huntington's disease choose not to undergo genetic testing

As many as 90 percent of individuals who have a parent with Huntington's disease (HD) choose not to take a gene test that reveals if they will also develop the fatal disorder -- and a new study details the reasons why.

17 May 2019

Scientists discover how mutations in DNA can cause neurodegenerative disease

Scientists have discovered how mutations in DNA can cause neurodegenerative disease. The discovery is an important step towards better treatment to slow the progression or delay onset in a range of incurable diseases such as Huntington's and motor neurone disease - possibly through the use, in new ways, of existing anti-inflammatory drugs.

13 May 2019