Cell Animation

Huntington Disease Onset Predicted By Striatal Brain Volume
Huntington disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder caused by a defect on chromosome four where, within the Huntingtin gene, a CAG repeat occurs too many times. Most individuals begin experiencing symptoms in their 40s or 50s, but studies have shown that significant brain atrophy occurs several years prior to an official HD diagnosis...

Huntington's Disease Lowers Cancer Risk
Patients with Huntington's disease have a considerably lower risk of developing cancer, researchers from Lund University, and Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden, reported in the journal Lancet Oncology. The same applies to other polyQ (polyglutamine) diseases, the authors added...

Key Enzyme Involved In Protecting Nerves From Degeneration Identified
A new animal model of nerve injury has brought to light a critical role of an enzyme called Nmnat in nerve fiber maintenance and neuroprotection...

Proteins Behaving Badly Provide Insights For Treatments Of Brain Diseases
A research team led by the University of Melbourne has developed a novel technique that tracks diseased proteins behaving badly by forming clusters in brain diseases such as Huntington's and Alzheimer's...

Huntington's Disease - Stem Cell Therapy Potential
At present there is no effective treatment for Huntington's disease - a progressive disorder in which nerve cells in certain parts of the brain waste away or degenerate and affects muscle coordination...

Stem Cells Hint At Potential Treatment For Huntington's Disease
Huntington's disease, the debilitating congenital neurological disorder that progressively robs patients of muscle coordination and cognitive ability, is a condition without effective treatment, a slow death sentence...

Widely Held View On Causal Mechanism In ALS Being Questioned
In science, refuting a hypothesis can be as significant as proving one, all the more so in research aimed at elucidating how diseases proceed with a view toward preventing, treating, or curing them. Such a discovery can save scientists from spending precious years of effort exploring a dead end...

Previously Unknown Mechanisms In The Pharmacology Of Dopamine Stabilisers
A study from Karolinska Institutet shows that a new drug for Huntington's disease - pridopidine or dopamine stabiliser ACR16 - might operate via previously unknown mechanisms of action. Researchers have found that at very low concentrations, ACR16 binds to the sigma-1 receptor, a protein in the brain important to neuronal function and survival...

Huntington's Disease - Blocking HDACs May Be The Way
The February 21 issue of the open access journal PLoS Biology reveals that researchers from the National University of Ireland Galway have made an important scientific discovery in the battle against Huntington's disease...

New Discovery In Fight Against Huntington's Disease
Researchers at National University of Ireland Galway have made a significant scientific discovery in the fight against Huntington's disease. The novel findings are published 21 February in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology...

Medical Researchers Discover 'Very Promising' Treatment For Huntington Disease
Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a promising new therapy for Huntington disease that restores lost motor skills and may delay or stop the progression of the disease based on lab model tests, says the lead researcher...

Stem Cells Show Promise For Delivering Gene Therapy For Huntington's Disease
A team of researchers at the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures has developed a technique for using stem cells to deliver therapy that specifically targets the genetic abnormality found in Huntington's disease, a hereditary brain disorder that causes progressive uncontrolled movements, dementia and death...

Circadian Rhythm Disruption Causes Neurodegeneration, Early Death
New research at Oregon State University provides evidence for the first time that disruption of circadian rhythms - the biological "clocks" found in many animals - can clearly cause accelerated neurodegeneration, loss of motor function and premature death. The study was published in Neurobiology of Disease and done by researchers at OSU and Oregon Health and Science University...

Studies Identify Promising Genes And Small Molecules To Use Against Devastating Diseases
Two related studies from Northwestern University offer new strategies for tackling the challenges of preventing and treating diseases of protein folding, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), cancer, cystic fibrosis and type 2 diabetes. To do its job properly within the cell, a protein first must fold itself into the proper shape...

In Huntington's Disease, Regulatory Enzyme Overexpression May Protect Against Neurodegeneration
Treatment that increases brain levels of an important regulatory enzyme may slow the loss of brain cells that characterizes Huntington's disease (HD) and other neurodegenerative disorders...