News

Leaders in the U.S. rare disease community came together recently for a webinar to present helpful information on how to start a nonprofit and patient registry. They shared about how their respective organizations came to be, as well as the benefits of creating patient registries and how they can help…

Levels of proteins derived from prodynorphin (PDYN) — ultimately used during cell-to-cell signaling in the brain — are decreased in the fluid surrounding the brains of people with Huntington’s disease (HD), a new small study suggests. These findings indicate that PDYN-derived proteins could be used as specific biological…

The first U.S. patients have been enrolled in PROOF-HD, a Phase 3 clinical trial investigating pridopidine as a treatment for Huntington’s disease, according to developers Prilenia Therapeutics. PROOF-HD (NCT04556656) will enroll up to 480 people with early-stage Huntington’s, and is currently recruiting at more than 60…

The Hereditary Disease Foundation‘s (HDF) has announced the first winner of its Nancy S. Wexler Young Investigator Prize, supporting excellence and creative thinking in Huntington’s disease research. The inaugural award went to Osama Al-Dalahmah, a neuropathology instructor in the department of pathology and cell biology…

A majority of rare disease patients using telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic thought the experience positive, and many would like the option of continuing its use in future appointments, a series of surveys found. The surveys were conducted by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) and involved more than 800…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is putting on hold Voyager Therapeutics’ request to test VY-HTT01, its investigational gene therapy for Huntington’s disease, in a clinical trial. The clinical hold will be kept in place until certain issues with VY-HTT01’s chemistry, manufacturing, and controls are…

No significant safety concerns associated with AMT-130, uniQure’s experimental gene therapy for Huntington’s disease, were identified in the first two patients participating in a Phase 1/2 trial assessing the treatment’s safety, tolerability, and efficacy. These were the main conclusions that came out of the first meeting of an…