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Molecule Seen to Ease Neuronal Damage Caused by Huntington’s Mutation

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center researchers have identified a molecule that might have protective effects against neuronal damage caused by mutant huntingtin, and constitute a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of Huntington’s disease. The study, “Mitochondrial division inhibitor 1 protects against mutant huntingtin-induced abnormal mitochondrial dynamics, synaptic dysfunction…

Huntington’s Gene-inducing Damage Might Have a Control Mechanism

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) researchers have identified a molecule — mitochondrial division inhibitor 1 (Mdivi1) — believed to hold promise as a potential treatment for Huntington’s disease. Mitochondria are specialized organelles in a cell responsible for creating the energy needed by the body to sustain life. An…

Huntingtin Protein’s Mechanisms of Action Seen in Study

Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry researchers have shown that the intracellular location of protein aggregates, long suspected to be involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s, is extremely important to the survival of nerve cells. While location in the nucleus has little influence on cellular function, protein deposits in the…

Novel Huntington’s Therapy to Enter Clinical Development

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. — formerly Isis Pharmaceuticals — announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its Orphan Drug Designation application for IONIS-HTTRx as a potential treatment of Huntington’s disease (HD). Ionis’ IONIS-HTTRx is a generation 2.0+ antisense drug developed to treat HD by reducing the production of all forms of the huntingtin…

VistaGen Acquires 3 New Stem-cell Technologies from UHN of Canada

VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing treatments for depression, cancer, and diseases like Huntington’s that involve the central nervous system, announced that it has secured exclusive worldwide commercial rights to three patent-pending stem-cell technologies from the University Health Network (UHN) of Canada. The technologies were discovered and developed at…

Small Molecule May Trigger Huntington’s Disease by Damaging Axons

Researchers from the University of Nottingham have discovered that a small molecule called nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) has a degenerative effect on axons, the thread-like projections involved in neuronal communication. Their study, titled “Wallerian Degeneration Is Executed by an NMN-SARM1-Dependent Late Ca2+ Influx but Only Modestly Influenced by Mitochondria,” was published in…