Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder resulting from an extended number of CAG repeats
in the Huntingtin (Htt) gene, for which no disease - modifying therapy is currently available, and comprises several cognitive and affective symptoms, as well as uncontrolled movement (chorea).
In the huntingtin - lowering trial that is currently underway, the treatment is reversible, and participants are being carefully monitored for safety.
That's much more dramatic than what happens
in a huntingtin - lowering treatment trial.
We've known for twenty years now that the cause of Huntington's disease is a mutation
in the huntingtin gene.
Two CMBN groups have identified a DNA repair gene that modify somatic and germline CAG trinucleotide repeat instability
in the Huntingtin gene.
The genetic basis of Huntington's disease (HD) is the presence of expanded CAG repeats
in the huntingtin gene.
Abstract The bulk of interest
in the huntingtin protein has centered on the fact that, when mutated, huntingtin causes Huntington's disease (HD), a devastating neurodegenerative disorder.
The expanded CAG sequence in the HD gene results
in a huntingtin protein with too many glutamines at the start of it.
The mutation causing HD is an abnormal polyglutamine stretch
in huntingtin.
More than 36 CAG repeats
in the huntingtin gene will always lead to HD symptoms, if a person lives long enough, and longer CAG repeats tend to produce an earlier age of onset.
We know for sure that the mutation
in the huntingtin gene is the ultimate reason why people get HD.
The disease is linked to a mutation
in the Huntingtin gene, which causes a protein of the same name to fold up incorrectly like misshapen origami.
In an earlier study, Subramaniam and his colleagues showed that Rhes binds to a series of repeats
in the huntingtin protein (named for its association with Huntington's disease), increasing the death of neurons.
Anyone with more than 36 repeats
in the huntingtin gene will develop Huntington's disease.
The stutters produce long stretches of the amino acid glutamine
in the huntingtin protein, and the resulting misshapen protein clumps up within neurons, destroying brain cells.
Huntington's disease is caused by an expansion of glutamine residues
in the huntingtin protein, altering its function and ultimately resulting in toxic aggregation of huntingtin fragments in neurons.
However, it is possible that other more subtle alterations of behavior or memory are present
in the huntingtin - deleted mice, he adds.
Not exact matches
Researchers led by Xiao - Jiang Li, MD, PhD and Shihua Li, MD, at Emory University School of Medicine, used genetically engineered mice
in which the
huntingtin gene can be deleted, triggered only when the mice are given the drug tamoxifen.
The
huntingtin gene is essential for embryonic development, and scientists have already shown that if mouse embryos don't have it at conception, they die
in utero.
The
huntingtin gene encodes a large scaffold protein, with many interaction partners, which is thought to be involved
in intracellular trafficking.
Additional research could make clear whether the post-natal role of
huntingtin tapers off with age
in humans
in the same way that it does
in mice.
In humans, Huntington's is an inherited disease caused by a gene encoding a toxic protein, called mutant
huntingtin, which causes brain cells to die.
The finding suggests that treatment strategies for Huntington's that aim to shut off the
huntingtin gene
in adults — now
in early clinical stages — could be safe.
In a nonhuman primate model geneticist Anthony Chan DVM, PhD, and his colleagues at Yerkes developed, rhesus macaques carry a gene encoding a fragment of mutant human
huntingtin.
When the
huntingtin gene is deleted at an age older than four months, these mice appeared to stay healthy, despite having lost their
huntingtin genes
in cells all over their bodies.
In Huntington's disease, mice carrying the pathologic genetic variant of the
huntingtin gene are being used to understand how this genetic lesion causes degeneration of striatal neurons and to develop novel treatments for the illness.
University of California, Irvine neurobiologists Leslie Thompson and Joseph Ochaba with the Departments of Neurobiology & Behavior and Psychiatry & Human Behavior and their colleagues from UCI and from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have shown that reducing the aberrant accumulation of a particular form of the mutant
Huntingtin protein corresponds to improvement
in symptoms and neuroinflammation
in HD mice.
«The damage caused by the mutant
huntingtin protein radiates out through the cell, like a pebble dropped
in a pond.
Mochly - Rosen and colleagues identified several other potential biomarkers that were elevated
in HD model mice, including the levels of 8 - hydroxy - deoxy - guanosine, a product of oxidative DNA damage,
in the urine and the presence of mutant
huntingtin aggregates and oxidative damage
in muscle and skin cells.
«Because mitochondrial dysfunction has been proposed to play an important role
in the pathogenesis of Huntington's disease,» said Qi, «we investigated the binding proteins of mutant
huntingtin on mitochondria.»
Huntington's disease is an inherited genetic disorder caused by mutations
in the gene that encodes
huntingtin protein.
The study successfully countered harmful effects of mutant
huntingtin and protected nerve cells
in several models of Huntington's disease.
HD is caused by a mutation
in the human HTT gene that results
in an abnormal expansion and misfolding of the corresponding
huntingtin protein.
In a study published online in Genome Research, researchers developed a novel computational strategy to identify interaction partners of the huntingtin protein and discovered a novel factor that suppresses misfolding and aggregatio
In a study published online
in Genome Research, researchers developed a novel computational strategy to identify interaction partners of the huntingtin protein and discovered a novel factor that suppresses misfolding and aggregatio
in Genome Research, researchers developed a novel computational strategy to identify interaction partners of the
huntingtin protein and discovered a novel factor that suppresses misfolding and aggregation.
Not long after the HD gene was isolated, studies led by MacDonald, also a co-author of the current investigation, found that a variation
in the number of CAG trinucleotide repeats within the HD gene, which codes for a protein called
huntingtin, is the primary determinant of the age at which HD symptoms appear, with a greater number of CAG repeats associated with an earlier symptom onset.
Different proteins are implicated
in each disease: tau
in Alzheimer's, alpha - synuclein
in Parkinson's and
huntingtin in Huntington's disease.
Huntingtin, the single gene mutation responsible for the disease, was identified
in 1993.
In March Chris Ross and his colleagues reported that cells bearing mutant
huntingtin could survive if they produced extra CBP.
Being able to detect and measure the amount of mutant
huntingtin present
in the nervous system will be a valuable way of seeing whether the gene - silencing drug is hitting its target and has the intended effect, lowering the amount of disease causing mHTT protein.
2015 will see the start of the first human clinical trial of a gene silencing or
huntingtin - lowering drug, which specifically aims to reduce production of mutant
huntingtin in the brains of HD patients.
In July, Elena Cattaneo and her colleagues at the University of Milan reported that mutant
huntingtin affects another key neuron - survival protein called brain - derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
The international team of scientists from University College London, IRBM Promidis, University of British Columbia, and CHDI Foundation developed a new ultra-sensitive test using the Singulex SMC Technology Erenna Immunoassay system that is able to detect mutant
huntingtin in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of HD patients, including some who carry the HD mutation but have not yet developed symptoms.
What's more, the concentration of mutant
huntingtin predicted the severity of movement and cognitive problems
in patients.
At the same point
in the disease process, the scientists found no evidence of impairment
in liver cells, which also produce the mutated
huntingtin protein.
The team's ongoing study is now looking at how the complete
huntingtin protein, which contains parts
in addition to the polyglutamine repeats, aggregates.
The mutant
Huntingtin gene is thought to cause toxic levels of protein to aggregate
in the brain.
Next, Grima looked at cell death
in cultured neurons with a healthy or a mutant form of
Huntingtin, or with a mutant form of
Huntingtin that was treated with small amounts of an experimental drug called KPT - 350, one that prevents a nuclear export protein, Exportin - 1, from shuttling proteins and RNA out of the nucleus.
Blocking nuclear export seemed to prevent cells from dying and counteracted the defects
in neurons with mutant
Huntingtin, the researchers say.
To further explore nuclear transport's role
in Huntington's disease, Grima took lab - grown mouse neurons and used chemical switches to a) turn on both an additional healthy copy of the RanGAP1 gene and a mutant version of
Huntingtin; b) just turn on the mutant
Huntingtin; or c) just turn on a healthy version of
Huntingtin.
Genes that lead to the toxic effects of the
huntingtin gene may be silenced by these microRNAs,
in particular the miR - 10b - 5p microRNA.