New Clue Emerges For Cellular Damage In Huntington's Disease"Huntington's disease presents an ideal vantage point to study neurodegenerative disease, because we know the misfolded protein that's responsible," says Martin Duennwald, formerly a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist. "But we don't understand how this protein causes cellular damage and death for the neurons that are affected.
Antioxidants Could Help Huntington's Disease SufferersTherapeutic strategies to strengthen antioxidant defences could help to prevent the progression of Huntington's Disease. This is the suggestion from the results of the first ever trial on human samples carried out by researchers at the University of Lleida. The results have been published in the latest issue of Free Radical Biology & Medicine magazine.
Structure Of Important Neurological Receptor Defined By Scripps Research ScientistsFindings establish a platform to understand G protein-coupled receptors; may help in development of new class of Parkinson's treatments Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have determined the structure of an adenosine receptor that plays a critical role in a number of important physiological processes including pain, breathing, and heart function.
Compounds That Prevent Nerve Damage Discovered By Duke TeamDuke University Medical Center scientists have made a significant finding that could lead to better drugs for several degenerative diseases including Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Compounds that block the activity of a specific enzyme prevented brain injury and greatly improved survival in fruit flies that had the same disease process found in Huntington's disease.
News Tips From The Journal Of Neuroscience PCP2 Shapes Light Response of ON Bipolar Cells Ying Xu, Pyroja Sulaiman, Rod Feddersen, Jian Liu, Robert G. Smith, and Noga Vardi Activation of G-protein-coupled receptors (e.g., metabotropic glutamate receptors in retinal ON bipolar cells) causes GTP to bind to the G-protein in place of GDP, resulting in dissociation and activation of Gα and Gβγ subunits and subsequent downstream effects (e.g., closing of cation channels).
FDA Approves New Huntington's DrugThe US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Friday that it has approved Prestwick Pharmaceuticals Inc's new drug Xenazine (generic name tetrabenazine) for the treatment of chorea in people with Huntington's disease, heralding the first treatment to receive US approval for any of the disease's symptoms. Huntington's is a rare inherited neurological disorder characterized by chorea or jerky, uncontrolled movements.
Scientists Create Disease-Specific Stem Cell LinesUS researchers have found a way to produce immortal cell strains and tissue types from diseased patients by converting their cells into pluripotent stem cells with the same genetic errors. The new cell lines will enable scientists to investigate ten different genetic disorders like Parkinson's, muscular dystrophy, and type 1 diabetes in the test tube instead of in the patient, a huge step forward compared to current methods.
Huntington's Disease: Catching It EarlyHuntington's disease normally only begins to cause its tell-tale memory and physical coordination impairments after affected individuals reach the age of 30. The nerve damage that creates these impairments is thought to be partly due to a destructive immune response in the brain. The current study now shows that this inflammatory response starts to brew elsewhere in the body long before it inflicts brain damage.
Researchers Link Huntington's Disease To Overactive Immune Response In The BrainThe damage to brain tissue seen in Huntington's disease may be caused by an overactive immune response in the bloodstream and the brain, according to new findings from two teams of researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and University College London. The findings were published online July 14 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Medivation Announces Positive Top-Line Results From Phase 2 Dimebon Study In Huntington's DiseaseMedivation, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN) announced top-line results of a Phase 2 study showing that its investigational drug Dimebon™ significantly improved cognitive function in patients with mild-to-moderate Huntington's disease (HD). Cognitive function was significantly improved over placebo (p=0.03) as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the cognition scale most widely used by clinicians to assess patients with neurodegenerative diseases.
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