News

Massive inflammation and other changes in the striatum, an area of the brain selectively destroyed in Huntington’s disease (HD), are already present before patients develop any symptoms, a study has found. These findings could help understand how the disease unravels and…

The length of CAG repeats within the huntingtin (HTT) gene tends to increase as people with Huntington’s disease get older and is directly correlated with poor clinical outcomes, a study has found. The study, “A genetic association study of glutamine-encoding DNA sequence structures, somatic CAG expansion, and…

People with Huntington’s disease who develop psychosis tend to have worse cognitive and behavioral disturbances, reduced ability to function, and fewer involuntary movements than patients who do not experience these psychiatric symptoms, a new study reports. The study, titled “Psychosis and longitudinal outcomes in Huntington disease: the…

Analysis of handwriting movements using a pen tablet and specialized software can accurately distinguish people with Huntington’s disease who are still asymptomatic from those without the disease, a new study suggests. The findings also reveal that certain stroke features differ significantly between healthy individuals and patients who are already…

Mutations associated with Huntington’s disease increase nerve cells’ resistance to high levels of manganese, according to a recent study. The results of the study, “Huntington’s disease associated resistance to Mn neurotoxicity is neurodevelopmental stage and neuronal lineage dependent,” were published in NeuroToxicology. Manganese (Mn) is…

A combined data analysis of five studies examining the effects of short-term exercise interventions in Huntington’s disease (HD) did not find any evidence of statistically significant motor improvements. The investigators suggest more supervised trials of longer duration and with common outcomes are necessary in order to evaluate the…

Levels of certain trace metals are altered in the blood of people with Huntington’s disease, a new study found, suggesting that measuring and/or targeting these metals may be useful for studying, or perhaps treating, Huntington’s. The results, “Trace elements profile in the blood of Huntington’ disease patients,”…

Increasing the levels of a natural enzyme called nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase — or Nmnat — halts the formation of mutant huntingtin (Htt) protein aggregates that build up in nerves cells in Huntington’s disease, a fruit fly study shows. “We discovered the neuroprotective role of a cellular ‘housekeeping’…

Different types of apathy — a common psychiatric symptom of Huntington’s disease — are associated with specific alterations in the brain’s white matter in patients at different stages of the disease, a study finds. White matter refers to regions of the brain made up of myelinated…

Next month’s annual conference of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) in Washington, D.C., couldn’t come at a better time, says Marshall Summar, MD, chairman of NORD’s board of directors. “The pace of discovery in rare diseases has gone from brisk to hypersonic,” Summar told Bionews Services, publisher…