Tag: "huntington" at biology news

U. Iowa researchers improve Huntington's disease symptoms in mice

Researchers at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine have taken another step toward a potential treatment for Huntington's disease (HD). Using an approach called RNA interference (RNAi), the scientists reduced levels of the disease-causing HD protein in mice and significantly improved the movement and neurological abnormalities normally associated with the diseas...

New insights into how Huntington's disease attacks the brain

Scientific theory holds that Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by a mutant protein that arises within brain cells and kills them, triggering the genetic neurological disorder. Now a new UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute study reveals the first strong evidence that the mutant protein also elicits toxic interactions from neighboring cells to provoke the fatal brain disorder. The May 5 edition of Ne...

Huntington's cure in flies lays groundwork for broader treatment approaches

Boosting levels of two critical proteins that normally shut down during Huntington's disease, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have cured fruit flies of the genetic, neurodegenerative condition. . .. The study results, published online today by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were a "logical finding" because of a growing...

Molecular trigger for Huntington's disease found

Researchers have discovered a key regulatory molecule whose overactivation by the abnormal protein produced in Huntington's disease (HD) causes the central pathologies of the disease. The abnormal HD protein activates the regulatory protein called p53, which in turn switches on a host of other genes. This abnormal gene activation damages the cells' power plants, called the mitochondria, and kills...

Old drug shows new promise for Huntington's Disease

Clioquinol, an antibiotic that was banned for internal use in the United States in 1971 but is still used in topical applications, appears to block the genetic action of Huntington's disease in mice and in cell culture, according to a study reported by San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) researchers. . .. Huntington's disease is a hereditary, degenerative, and ultimately fatal disease of the...

MIT research holds promise for Huntington's treatment

Researchers at MIT and Harvard Medical School have identified a compound that interferes with the pathogenic effects of Huntington's disease, a discovery that could lead to development of a new treatment for the disease. . .. "There are now some drugs that can help with the symptoms, but we...

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. . .. "...

Test reveals effectiveness of potential Huntington's disease drugs

A test using cultured cells provides an effective way to screen drugs against Huntington's disease and shows that two compounds ?memantine and riluzole ?are most effective at keeping cells alive under conditions that mimic the disorder, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report. . "These drugs have been tested in a variety of Huntington's disease models and some HD human trials and resu...

New technology to speed up research into Huntington's disease

A new tool developed at Cambridge University represents a breakthrough in the race to find treatments to help sufferers with Huntington's disease. . .. Huntington's disease is a genetic disease affecting around 8 in 100,000 people. It is characterised by a progressive decli...

Proteasome activator enhances survival of Huntington's disease neuronal model cells

To function, each living cell needs both to build new and to degrade old or damaged proteins. To accomplish that, a number of intracellular systems work in concert to keep the cell healthy and from clogging up with damaged proteins. When proteins or peptides mutate, they can present major problems to the clearing up of the intracellular environment. In Huntington's disease (HD) the disease provok...