A Genetic Lottery
— Rebecca Field

The Hereditary Disease Foundation (HDF) raised $900,000 to fund research into Huntington’s disease and other brain disorders during its Nov. 6 “Celebration of 50 Years of Discovery” symposium and gala at New York’s Metropolitan Club. The event included a scientific symposium and a dinner and award ceremony, where winners…

A protein responsible for protecting nerve cells can become embedded in other substances in the brains of  Huntington’s patients, preventing it from performing its neuroprotective work, Spanish researchers report. Another important finding was that the areas where the ATF5 protein are embedded also contain clusters of the faulty huntingtin protein…

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently notified Mitochon Pharmaceuticals of its allowance on the first patent that the company says will help it proceed with the continued clinical development of MP101 as a treatment for Huntington’s disease (HD) and others. MP101 is one of…

The Huntington Society of Canada (HSC) and Ottawa-based social media company Shared have jointly launched the “One Extra Push” campaign to raise awareness about Huntington’s disease (HD) in Canada. Shared took up the challenge in honor of Amanda Munro, one of its employees, whose mother has HD. One Extra…

Researchers have identified an elaborate protein quality control system that prevents toxic accumulation of faulty proteins inside mitochondria, a phenomenon that underlies many neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington’s disease. The study, ”Cytosolic Protein Vms1 Links Ribosome Quality Control to Mitochondrial and Cellular Homeostasis,” was published in the journal Cell.

As therapeutics for Huntington’s disease (HD) are still a need, a number of natural compounds may hold promising beneficial effects, a review study shows. The review “The Medicinal Chemistry of Natural and Semi-Synthetic Compounds Against Parkinson’s and Huntington’s Diseases” was published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience. As…

A Spanish study investigating the functioning of chloroplasts — the nutrient-producing “factory” of plants — has revealed a new mechanism that helps understand how a cell controls and regulates protein folding mechanisms. This new finding can improve knowledge of Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s…

uniQure recently showed that its gene therapy candidate AMT-130 improves motor coordination and survival in mouse models of Huntington’s disease (HD). The preclinical study results were presented at the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) 25th Anniversary Congress, held Oct. 17-20 in Berlin, Germany. The…

Researchers have come up with a new method to study the interactions between cell components that are thought to be defective in patients with Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. But while the study answered some initial questions of how these cell components, or organelles, collaborate, much work remains,…

Three Huntington’s disease (HD) patient advocacy organizations in Europe and North America recently launched a collaborative effort to give patients and the HD community more of a voice in clinical research. The newly formed Huntington’s Disease Coalition for Patient Engagement (HD-COPE) aims to give Huntington’s patients a platform to express their…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has awarded orphan drug status to uniQure’s proprietary candidate for Huntington’s disease (HD), a first in the history of Huntington’s treatment. No approved therapies exist to target the underlying cause of Huntington’s, a disease caused by a mutation in the huntingtin gene .

Identifying Huntington’s disease progression can be a challenge in clinical trials. Now, an international team of researchers proposes in an article published in JAMA Neurology the use of a new composite measure to help evaluate disease progression prior to a motor diagnosis. Progression of Huntington’s disease is characterized by the…