( Researchers at Rush University Medical ...)Gene therapy injected into the brains' of mice with Huntington's disease

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and Ceregene Inc., San Diego, have successfully used gene therapy to preserve motor function and stop the anatomic, cellular changes that occur in the brains of mice with Huntington's disease (HD). This is the first study to demonstrate that, using this delivery method, symptom onset might be prevented in HD mice with this treatment.

Results of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, June 13, 2006.

"This could be an important step toward a disease modifying therapy," says co-author Jeffrey H. Kordower, PhD, director of the Research Center for Brain Repair at Rush. "We could potentially be stopping the disease process in its tracks, delaying symptoms from ever showing up."

Huntington's disease is an inherited degenerative disease that progressively robs patients of the ability to think, judge appropriately, control their emotions and perform coordinated tasks. HD typically begins in mid-life, between the ages of 40 and 50. There is no effective treatment or cure for this fatal illness that affects 30,000 Americans and places another 75,000 at risk.

Kordower says this research, if eventually applied to humans, could help those who have HD or, due to the presence of a genetic test, are known to be destined to get HD.

"Each child of an affected parent has a 50 percent risk for inheriting the disease. Genetic testing can identify mutated gene carriers destined to suffer from HD. Unlike other neurodegenerative disorders, identification of the genetic markers provides a unique opportunity to intercede therapeutically before or extremely early in the disease process–only a small fraction of potential carriers get tested. But, if there was a treatment, especially one that altered the natural course of disease, potentially halting it, we would hope every potential patient would get tested so they could avail themselves
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Source:Rush University Medical Center

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