A Genetic Lottery
— Rebecca Field

My late father, David, never wanted to take the genetic test for Huntington’s disease, an illness that had already taken the life of his own father and his grandmother. He knew there was neither a cure nor a…

Forms of mutant huntingtin (mHTT) protein that don’t clump initially drive early disease progression in people with Huntington’s disease, according to a study wherein patient-derived cells were transplanted into newborn mice. These soluble forms of mHTT were found…

My brother, Gavin, has Huntington’s disease. It causes problems with his cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and sensory skills. We’re fortunate to have support from a care adviser from the Huntington’s Disease Association, who has…

Nearly a year of treatment with Neurocrine Biosciences’ Ingrezza (valbenazine) leads to sustained reductions in uncontrolled movements known as chorea in adults with Huntington’s disease, according to interim data from a Phase 3 trial called KINECT-HD2. “The…

I met my first genetic counselor to discuss testing for Huntington’s disease when I was 22 years old and we feared my dad was at risk for developing the disease. He’d stopped working and driving at…

A four-week titration kit for starting on Austedo (deutetrabenazine) — an approved therapy for chorea, or involuntary muscle contractions, due to Huntington’s disease — has so far been well-received by patients in a Phase 4 clinical trial.

My brother, Gavin, was recently diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. It has affected his sensory processing of vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch, and the proprioceptive, vestibular, and interoceptive systems. With Huntington’s disease, this sensory…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug status to SAGE-718, Sage Therapeutics’ experimental oral therapy for Huntington’s disease. The FDA gives this designation to therapies that have the potential to treat rare diseases,…

Five years ago, I grew increasingly concerned about my brother, Gavin. He was aggressive, angry, anxious, self-neglecting, and unemployed, and he appeared to be coping poorly with his Huntington’s disease. I reached out to our local Huntington’s care…

People with Huntington’s disease were found to have a widespread deficiency of selenium — a trace mineral found naturally in foods such as seafood and Brazil nuts — in their brains, revealing a new potential therapeutic target,…

Blocking immune system proteins that are part of the body’s complement cascade — which helps the immune system to fight infection — was found to protect nerve cell connections between two brain regions known to be affected in…

I remember my family speaking openly about Huntington’s disease (HD) throughout my childhood. Our paternal great-grandmother had passed away before my brother and I were born, and our paternal grandfather passed when we were very young. Both had…