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Combining stem cell and gene therapy can ease symptoms and lengthen survival time in a mouse model of Huntington’s disease, according to recent research. The study, “Combination of stem cell and gene therapy ameliorates symptoms in Huntington’s disease mice,” was published in the journal Regenerative Medicine. Huntington’s is caused…

Active psychiatric disorders are associated with increased risk of suicidal behaviors among Huntington’s patients participating in clinical trials, a large-scale study suggests. The study, “Risk factors for suicidality in Huntington disease: An analysis of the 2CARE clinical trial,” was published in Neurology. Huntington’s disease is mostly recognized for…

Practicing contemporary dance can improve motor function in people with Huntington’s disease, a new study has found. Titled “Contemporary Dance Practice Improves Motor Function and Body Representation in Huntington’s Disease: A Pilot Study,” the study was published in the Journal of Huntington’s Disease. There is overwhelming evidence…

Madeline Collin, a 24-year-old activist with Gaucher disease, worries that patients like her will suffer deeply if Britain leaves the European Union (EU), as scheduled, at the end of this month. Collin is an expert on the subject. For her University of Bathdissertation, she analyzed Brexit’s long-term impact…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted orphan drug designation to MP101, an investigational mitochondrial-targeted neuroprotective agent, to treat Huntington’s disease. Mitochon Pharmaceuticals, the therapy’s developer, expects to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial in healthy volunteers in 2019 and move to Phase 2 studies in 2020. “We are…

With each new advance in medicine comes ethical dilemmas, from fertility treatments and newborn screening, to vaccinations, gene therapies and euthanasia. But rare diseases and the expensive therapies needed to treat them — particularly in an age of scarce economic resources — almost always entail “tragic choices,” warned Avraham Steinberg,…

Encouraging new preclinical data on AMT-130, uniQure’s experimental gene therapy candidate for Huntington’s disease, were presented at the 14th Annual Huntington’s disease Therapeutics Conference. The conference was organized by the CHDI Foundation and held in Palm Springs, California, Feb. 25–28. “Findings from our preclinical studies illustrate…