News

For Huntington’s Disease Awareness Week, the Huntington’s Disease Association in the U.K. has a few suggestions for ways to bring the community together and educate others. Because Huntington’s is a rare disease, few are fully aware of its symptoms and signs. Advocates want to use occasions such as this to educate the…

Catherine Martin’s mother died from Huntington’s disease. So did her grandmother and a number of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Yet the Scottish woman didn’t get tested for this genetic illness — which she had a 50-50 chance of developing — until she was 30 years old. She tested negative.

Targeting the Gpr52 receptor can reduce the levels of mutant huntingtin (HTT) proteins and improve Huntington’s disease symptoms, including walking problems, in animal models, a study suggests. The study, “Targeting Gpr52 lowers mutant HTT levels and rescues Huntington’s disease-associated phenotypes,” was published in the journal Brain. G…

Iron accumulation in the mitochondria of brain cells may drive Huntington’s disease progression, researchers report.  Removing excess iron with an FDA-approved treatment was seen to rescue mitochondrial function and improved motor endurance in a mouse model of the disease. Their study, “Brain mitochondrial iron accumulates in Huntington’s disease, mediates…

At least 800 people representing some 45 countries are soon expected to gather in Austria’s capital city, Vienna, for ECRD 2018, the 9th European Conference on Rare Diseases and Orphan Products. The May 10-12 meeting is sponsored by Eurordis, the Paris-based group that defines itself as a “patient-driven alliance”…

Treatment with investigational medication VX15/2503 halts disease-related loss of brain volume and improves its metabolic activity in Huntington’s disease patients, according to a Phase 2 clinical study. The research, “Clinical Development of VX15/2503 Anti-Semaphorin 4D Antibody as a Potential Treatment for Huntington’s Disease,” was presented by Elizabeth Evans, PhD,…

The investigative therapy IONIS-HTTRx effectively reduced levels of the protein responsible for Huntington’s disease in early-stage patients, according to the findings of an ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial. The results also revealed that IONIS-HTTRx is generally safe and well-tolerated by patients, further demonstrating its potential as an alternative therapeutic option…

CHDI Foundation has teamed up with PTC Therapeutics to try to advance PTC’s work on small-molecule compounds that can reduce the production of huntingtin, the protein responsible for Huntington’s disease. The compounds have shown promise. They decreased the protein in a mouse model carrying the human huntingtin gene. And they…

A little-known government entity within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is helping to lead U.S. efforts to speed up the development of therapies for some 7,000 rare diseases. The Office of Rare Diseases Research (ORDR), headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, was established in 1993 within the NIH Office of the…

Mutations linked to Huntington’s disease cause more extensive remodeling of functional connectivity in various regions of the brain than previously thought, affecting patients’ motor and cognitive skills, research looking at whole brain connectivity in disease carriers reports. These findings — in “Whole-Brain Connectivity in a Large Study of Huntington’s…