Magdalena Kegel,  —

Magdalena is a writer with a passion for bridging the gap between the people performing research, and those who want or need to understand it. She writes about medical science and drug discovery. She holds an MS in Pharmaceutical Bioscience and a PhD — spanning the fields of psychiatry, immunology, and neuropharmacology — from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

Articles by Magdalena Kegel

Enzymes Linked to Huntington’s Seen for 1st Time in Living Brain

Scientists at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital were able — for the first time — to track epigenetic factors, or non-genetic influences on gene activity, linked to Huntington’s disease in the brains of living humans. The study, “Insights into neuroepigenetics through human histone…

Promising Huntington’s Therapy Candidate Discussed at Hereditary Disease Foundation Meeting

About 300 international scientists and industry leaders recently gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the Hereditary Disease Foundation‘s 10th biennial “Milton Wexler Celebration of Life” Symposium, to promote collaborations that can take scientific findings from the laboratory into the lives of patients as treatments. One of the highlights of the meeting,…

Huntington’s Drug Candidate Huntexil Can Trigger Neuroprotection

Huntexil (pridopidine), a drug candidate intended to treat Huntington’s disease movement symptoms, might have a more intricate way of acting on the brain than researchers previously believed — by ramping up activity in molecular pathways known to promote neuroprotection. In the study “Pridopidine activates neuroprotective pathways impaired in…

Huntington’s Researchers Identify Novel Compound in Search for Potential Treatment Strategy

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report they’ve identified a novel compound that could be a potential therapy strategy for Huntington’s disease, protecting nerve cells from death in both cultured cells and animal models of the disease. The study, “SIRT2- and NRF2-Targeting Thiazole-Containing Compound with Therapeutic Activity in…

Teva’s Therapy for Chorea in Huntington’s Disease, SD-809, Shows Effect in 12-Week Clinical Trial

Results from a Phase 3 clinical trial found that deutetrabenazine (SD-809), an investigational drug developed by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, improved chorea among Huntington’s disease patients. But the researchers caution that more studies are needed to ascertain the treatment’s long-term effectiveness and safety. Data from the trial showing that the drug improved swallowing…