Inês Martins, PhD,  managing science editor—

Treatment in a U.S.-based Phase 1/2 clinical trial evaluating uniQure‘s gene therapy AMT-130 in people with Huntington’s disease has been temporarily postponed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the company announced. The decision to postpone procedures in the two enrolled…

The accumulation of toxic protein aggregates within nerve cells are a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, or Huntington’s disease. Now, researchers at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have identified a protein called UBQLN2 that protects against such diseases by eliminating those protein aggregates. The study, “…

Stopping the protein TDP-43 from accumulating in mitochondria may help prevent neurodegeneration in a variety of diseases, according to researchers at the Case Western Reserve University. In a recent study, they demonstrated that once inside mitochondria, TDP-43 shuts down its ability to produce energy, leading to nerve cell death. The study, “The…

Using roundworms to screen chemicals that increase lifespan may improve knowledge on diseases related to aging such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, or cancer, according to initial findings recently revealed at the The Allied Genetics Conference in Orlando, Florida. In a new consortium called the Caenorhabditis Intervention Testing Program (CITP), funded by the National Institute on…

According to a recent study developed by researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada, more people may have mutations linked to the development of Huntington’s disease (HD) than previously thought. However, the increase is only seen in people whose mutations are associated with a lower risk of developing the disease.

Korean researchers have demonstrated for the first time that transplanting cells from a patient with Huntington’s disease (HD) into mice leads to the development of the pathology in the animal through the propagation of mutated huntingtin (HTT). The study “Human-to-mouse prion-like propagation of mutant huntingtin protein,” was published in…

A collaboration between researchers at the University of Leicester, U.K., and the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, may lead to a way of reversing some symptoms of neurogedenerative diseases, like Huntington’s, by blocking two specific enzymes of the kynurenine pathway. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the…

Olesoxime, a drug shown to have neuroprotective properties, may have beneficial effects in Huntington’s patients through reduction of calpain-mediated huntingtin cleavage, according to the study “The calpain-suppressing effects of olesoxime in Huntington’s disease,” published in the journal Rare Diseases. Olesoxime is a small molecule…