News

Patients at advanced stages of Huntington’s disease have marked difficulties in controlling vehicles in a driving simulator compared to patients who are at a pre-symptomatic stage or healthy subjects, a study shows. The study’s authors think such driving simulators could be useful screening tools to aid clinicians in…

Signs of neurological dysfunction can start long before a clinical diagnosis of Huntington’s disease, a study shows. Early cognitive rehabilitation programs might be useful in the pre-manifest stage of the disease. The study, “Task-switching abilities in pre-manifest Huntington’s disease subjects” was published in Parkinsonism and Related Disorders. Although family history and DNA…

Two proteins present in the blood and brains of patients with Huntington’s disease may be used as biomarkers to detect the earliest changes caused by the disease, according to recent research. The study, “Evaluation of mutant huntingtin and neurofilament proteins as potential markers in Huntington’s disease,” was published…

Half a year has gone by since disgraced pharma executive Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for securities and wire fraud while heading San Diego-based Retrophin. As founder and CEO of another company (then known as Turing Pharmaceuticals), in late 2015 Shkreli bought the rights…

The National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has granted $12.6 million to Northwestern University to study the role of protein quality control mechanisms in human aging and neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington’s. The five-year grant is one of the NIH’s Program Project Grants, designed to assemble…

Measuring concentrations of mutant huntingtin (mHTT) protein and another protein, called neurofilament light protein (NfL), can provide early and specific indications of Huntington’s-related changes, according to a new study. The findings suggest the potential of these two markers in both clinical practice and clinical research. The study, “…

A Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) Phase 1b clinical trial is recruiting patients to test the safety and tolerability of a leukemia treatment called nilotinib in Huntington’s disease patients. The research team plans to initially enroll 10 patients with early to moderate Huntington’s. Patients will receive 150mg of…

With the support of Houston Astros pitcher Joe Smith and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), about 100 Huntington’s disease patients and their families got to relax for a few hours and take in a ballgame at Minute Maid Park. The tickets for…

Two new clinical studies of Roche’s investigational therapy RG6042 for Huntington’s disease (HD) are planned to start by the end of 2018 and will begin enrolling participants by early 2019. These studies will help researchers to understand Huntington’s progression and the therapeutic effectiveness of RG6042, which may “potentially be the…

More than 700 medical experts, pharmaceutical executives, patient advocates, and others are expected to converge on Washington, D.C., next month for the 2018 NORD Rare Diseases & Orphan Products Breakthrough Summit. The Oct. 15-16 event, sponsored by the National Organization for Rare Diseases (NORD), takes place at the…