News

Huntington’s Research to be Improved by New Mouse Brain Discovery

New data on an uncharted dark spot of the mouse brain map reveals how connections between brain cells form networks responsible for movement and motor learning — tasks that go awry in conditions such as Huntington’s disease. The findings, discovered during a larger comprehensive project by scientists at the University…

Prenatal Testing for Huntington’s Should Include Psychological Support, Study Finds

New research from University Hospital Pitié-Salpêtrière at Sorbonne University, France indicates that couples at risk of transmitting Huntington’s disease to their children need more psychological support before pre-natal testing of the embryo’s genetic status, and additional counseling should they choose to reproduce again. In practice, about 5-25% of men and women at risk…

FDA Responds to Teva’s NDA with Complete Response Letter for Huntington’s Chorea Drug

Teva Pharmaceutical announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Complete Response Letter (CRL) answering the pharmaceutical’s New Drug Application (NDA) for SD-809 (deutetrabenazine) tablets, for the treatment of chorea associated with Huntington’s disease (HD), a condition reported by nearly 90 percent of all Huntington’s…

Transplants of Healthy Glial Cell Seen to Prevent Huntington Symptoms in Mice

Groundbreaking research from the University of Copenhagen showed that healthy glial cells, transplanted into the brains of mice in a Huntington’s disease model, improved symptoms and prolonged the animals’ lives, demonstrating that glial cells actively contribute to disease processes — a finding with potentially far-reaching implications for the research into, and treatment…

Discovery Shows Enzyme May Protect Against Effects of Degenerative Brain Diseases

A multi-institutional study led by a team of biomedical researchers in the lab of Hui-Chen Lu at Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana, has discovered evidence indicating that the enzyme nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyl transferase 2 (NMNAT2) may have protective qualities against debilitating effects of certain degenerative brain diseases called proteinopathies, that…