RSS Feed – HDBuzz

Drs Rachel Harding and Tam Maiuri are taking a leap of faith to make discoveries in Huntington’s Disease (HD) research swift and open to all. They are publishing their lab notes on fundamental HD research online in real time, at the risk of losing credit for their work. As a ... read more

The cause of Huntington’s disease has been known since 1993, but the physical structure of the healthy huntingtin protein proved difficult to discover until now. German scientists have now revealed the shape of the huntingtin protein for the first time. Although the structure of the mutant form of the protein ... read more

Good morning from the final day of the 2018 HD Therapeutics Conference! Two sessions today, the first focused on the protein made from the HD gene. The second includes updates on Huntingtin Lowering Trials from both Wave Life Sciences and Ionis Pharmaceuticals.Thursday morning - huntingtin proteinEvery HD patient has inherited ... read more

Updates from day 2 of the Huntington's Disease Therapeutics Conference focusing on DNA repair in HD.Wednesday morning - DNA repair in HDGood morning from the 2018 HD Therapeutics Conference! Today's update is relatively brief because the afternoon was focused on poster presentations. The morning session focused on the role of ... read more

Jeff and Ed report from the Huntington's Disease Therapeutics Conference - the biggest annual gathering of HD researchers. This year's conference is bigger and more exciting than ever.Tuesday morning - brain connectionsGood morning from the first day of the 2018 HD Therapeutics Conference in sunny Palm Springs!Rui Costa, Columbia University, ... read more

New hints are emerging about the normal role of the gene that causes Huntington's disease. A recent report uses cutting edge techniques to study this question in cells growing in the lab. We'll help separate the fascinating new science from some scary-sounding headlines. Cool science, shame about the reportingYou might ... read more

A recent mouse study of a drug known as CTEP suggests the drug is surprisingly helpful for HD-like symptoms in mice. This is a welcome surprise, because it suggests a well-understood brain process might be a useful drug target for future HD research. Busy as a brain cellHuntington's Disease is ... read more

The research news, announced on 11 December 2017, that a research team from the Huntington's Disease Centre at University College London have made significant step towards a possible treatment for Huntington's disease, raised many questions for the Huntington's disease community. Dr Ed Wild answered some of these questions on behalf ... read more

In an announcement likely to stand as one of the biggest breakthroughs in Huntington's disease since the discovery of the HD gene in 1993, Ionis and Roche today announced that the first human trial of a huntingtin-lowering drug, IONIS-HTTRx, demonstrates that it reduces mutant huntingtin in the nervous system, and ... read more

Genome editing is a much-discussed frontier in medical science at the moment, with ‘DNA surgery’ having the potential to treat or cure genetic diseases like Huntington’s. Here we look at what this technology can currently do and discuss the challenges that still lie in the way. We’ll also discuss how ... read more

A new analysis of clinical data from the TRACK-HD and COHORT studies proposes a way to design of clinical trials designed to delay the onset of HD, rather than treating symptoms after they occur. What's the history of clinical trials in HD?Clinical trials are experiments conducted to see whether a ... read more

Some techniques aimed at lowering mutant huntingtin can also affect the normal form of the protein. With clinical trials underway, it’s all the more important to understand the role of normal huntingtin in the adult brain. Researchers recently inactivated the huntingtin gene in healthy adult mice of different ages. They ... read more

A new exciting chapter in Huntington’s disease (HD) treatment is just beginning – WAVE Life Sciences have announced PRECISION-HD1 and 2, clinical trials of two new drugs that lower the mutant Huntington’s disease protein. We’re excited about this novel approach to huntingtin lowering therapies, but these are early days and ... read more

CRISPR-Cas9 is an experimental gene editing technique used to make precise changes in DNA. For the first time, scientists have used this approach to attack the Huntington's Disease mutation in the brain cells of a mouse. Other researchers are refining CRISPR-Cas9 to be more efficient, specific, and safe. It’s still ... read more

Ionis Pharmaceuticals launched the first ever trial of a huntingtin-lowering drug – sometimes called a 'gene silencing drug' – in late 2015. In a significant update, the company has announced two important milestones: the trial is now fully recruited, and an 'open-label extension' will be activated for the volunteers in ... read more

What if a blood test could provide information about the status and course of HD? This is the premise of seeking HD biomarkers; they may someday help guide treatment decisions and predict how symptoms will change. A team of researchers spanning multiple countries recently analyzed blood, brain images, and clinical ... read more

If media reports of a "wonder-drug" that could "stop all neurodegenerative brain diseases, including dementia” seem too good to be true, that's because they are. The truth behind the headlines is that researchers tested thousands of already-licensed drugs in worms, and a couple that went on to show beneficial effects ... read more

The final day of the 2017 Huntington's Disease Therapeutics conference brought updates on research to better understand how HD affects brains, and breakthroughs in using brain cells to understand and treat HD.Connections in the brainAndrew Leuchter from UCLA works on ways to study the brain's electrical activity to monitor HD. ... read more

Day two of the conference looks at some of the most promising approaches to fighting Huntington's disease.Huntingtin lowering therapiesExciting session planned for this morning, as the conference discusses "Huntingtin lowering" approaches to treating HD.The first talk is from HDBuzz's own Ed Wild (University College London), who is interested in developing ... read more

Hi everyone! It's the annual Huntington's Disease Therapeutics Conference in Malta. Around 350 scientists from round the world all working on HD are gathered here to discuss the latest research developments. We're reporting live via twitter and aggregating our updates into daily articles.Big news from big dataThe first speaker is ... read more

Exciting new studies provide evidence that a particular kind of cellular trafficking goes awry in Huntington's Disease. Specifically, researchers have learned that traffic in and out of the cells control center - the nucleus - breaks down in HD. These findings open up new avenues for HD research.Cellular border controlAt ... read more

Significant news for the Huntington's disease community this week, as the USA's drug regulator, the FDA, has formally approved Austedo, also known as deutetrabenazine, for prescribing in HD. This modified form of tetrabenazine helps control chorea, the jerky movements often found in HD patients, but is taken twice rather than ... read more

Beyond affecting movement, mood, and thinking, HD involves a complex set of changes to the body that can be difficult to predict in different individuals. Recently, researchers were able to identify consistent early changes in metabolism by studying a group of HD sheep. This large animal model is helping scientists ... read more

Cannabis, or medical marijuana, has been touted as a treatment for lots of conditions, and Huntington’s disease is no exception. Whenever it hits the news there’s a lot of interest, and recently cannabis found the spotlight again with videos claiming it can reverse the nerve cell damage in Huntington’s disease. ... read more

Cannabis, or medical marijuana, has been touted as a treatment for lots of conditions, and Huntington’s disease is no exception. Whenever it hits the news there’s a lot of interest, and recently cannabis found the spotlight again with videos claiming it can reverse the nerve cell damage in Huntington’s disease. ... read more

DNA damage is a hot topic in HD – and new research offers an intriguing explanation. Canadian researchers have uncovered a potential role for huntingtin in the repair of DNA. They speculate that the normal protein is recruited to the nucleus to provide a supporting scaffold for a construction crew ... read more

DNA damage is a hot topic in HD – and new research offers an intriguing explanation. Canadian researchers have uncovered a potential role for huntingtin in the repair of DNA. They speculate that the normal protein is recruited to the nucleus to provide a supporting scaffold for a construction crew ... read more

Huntingtin, the protein responsible for Huntington’s disease, is fundamentally important for fetuses to develop in the womb, but we don’t know yet exactly what part it plays in this intricate process. Normally, neurons start life deep within the developing brain, migrate out to the surface and then make a network ... read more

Huntingtin, the protein responsible for Huntington’s disease, is fundamentally important for fetuses to develop in the womb, but we don’t know yet exactly what part it plays in this intricate process. Normally, neurons start life deep within the developing brain, migrate out to the surface and then make a network ... read more

Researchers have long known that patients with a greater number of CAG repeats in their HD gene tend to display motor symptoms sooner than those with fewer CAG repeats. However, this relationship is not perfect. Sometimes HD patients display symptoms at a drastically different time than expected based on the ... read more

Researchers have long known that patients with a greater number of CAG repeats in their HD gene tend to display motor symptoms sooner than those with fewer CAG repeats. However, this relationship is not perfect. Sometimes HD patients display symptoms at a drastically different time than expected based on the ... read more

Researchers have long believed that the Huntington's disease gene causes problems by telling cells to make a harmful protein. Intriguing new animal work from researchers in Spain suggests we might want to look at more than one suspect to completely fix the problems caused by the HD mutation.The central dogma ... read more

Researchers have long believed that the Huntington's disease gene causes problems by telling cells to make a harmful protein. Intriguing new animal work from researchers in Spain suggests we might want to look at more than one suspect to completely fix the problems caused by the HD mutation.The central dogma ... read more

Pfizer has announced that the first-pass analysis of its 'Amaryllis' trial, testing a PDE-10 inhibitor drug, shows the drug did not meet its target of improving Huntington's disease symptoms. As a result, the open-label extension study will be stopped. This is not the news we'd been hoping for, but we've ... read more

Pfizer has announced that the first-pass analysis of its 'Amaryllis' trial, testing a PDE-10 inhibitor drug, shows the drug did not meet its target of improving Huntington's disease symptoms. As a result, the open-label extension study will be stopped. This is not the news we'd been hoping for, but we've ... read more

Recent days have seen a slew of news emerging regarding the use of something called genome editing as a potential therapy for genetic diseases like Huntington's Disease. These approaches, which include exotic sounding tools like zinc finger nucleases and CRISPR/Cas9, differ from more traditional ways reducing the impact of the ... read more

Recent days have seen a slew of news emerging regarding the use of something called genome editing as a potential therapy for genetic diseases like Huntington's Disease. These approaches, which include exotic sounding tools like zinc finger nucleases and CRISPR/Cas9, differ from more traditional ways reducing the impact of the ... read more

A recent press release from Teva Pharmaceuticals has the HD community excited, claiming "Pridopidine Demonstrates Slowing of Progression of Huntington Disease in PRIDE-HD Study". What's pridopidine, and what can we really say about HD progression in patients treated with it? A brief history of pridopidine in HDPridopidine is a drug ... read more

A recent press release from Teva Pharmaceuticals has the HD community excited, claiming "Pridopidine Demonstrates Slowing of Progression of Huntington Disease in PRIDE-HD Study". What's pridopidine, and what can we really say about HD progression in patients treated with it? A brief history of pridopidine in HDPridopidine is a drug ... read more

Here's our roundup of all the science presented at the 2016 European Huntington's Disease Network biennial meeting - one of the biggest meetings of Huntingtons Disease families, scientists and care professionals.Our first science session is on recent breakthroughs understanding the biology of HD. (Sidebar: for the 1st time, science speakers ... read more

Here's our roundup of all the science presented at the 2016 European Huntington's Disease Network biennial meeting - one of the biggest meetings of Huntingtons Disease families, scientists and care professionals.Our first science session is on recent breakthroughs understanding the biology of HD. (Sidebar: for the 1st time, science speakers ... read more

A relatively new technology called exome sequencing has identified a few families with novel mutations in their HD genes. These are different than the mutation that causes HD, but allow researchers to better understand the normal role of the HD gene.Normal HD gene functionThe mutation that causes HD instructs brain ... read more

A relatively new technology called exome sequencing has identified a few families with novel mutations in their HD genes. These are different than the mutation that causes HD, but allow researchers to better understand the normal role of the HD gene.Normal HD gene functionThe mutation that causes HD instructs brain ... read more

A scientific paper declares positive results for a trial of deutetrabenazine in Huntington's disease, but the headlines report the FDA has rejected the drug. Confusing stuff! The reality is positive overall for this new way of treating uncontrollable movements in HD, but patience will be needed to see where it ... read more

A scientific paper declares positive results for a trial of deutetrabenazine in Huntington's disease, but the headlines report the FDA has rejected the drug. Confusing stuff! The reality is positive overall for this new way of treating uncontrollable movements in HD, but patience will be needed to see where it ... read more

A new piece of research has implicated a type of brain cells called glia in the development of HD symptoms. Regular mice injected with glial cells carrying the mutant huntingtin gene in the study developed symptoms associated with HD. Interestingly, this influence appears to work both ways — a mild ... read more

A new piece of research has implicated a type of brain cells called glia in the development of HD symptoms. Regular mice injected with glial cells carrying the mutant huntingtin gene in the study developed symptoms associated with HD. Interestingly, this influence appears to work both ways — a mild ... read more

Everyone with Huntington's disease has inherited the same type of mutation from their mother or father, an extra-long repetitive stretch of the sequence C-A-G in their HD gene. But the length of the mutation varies between individuals, and longer repeats are associated with earlier onset of symptoms. A huge new ... read more

Everyone with Huntington's disease has inherited the same type of mutation from their mother or father, an extra-long repetitive stretch of the sequence C-A-G in their HD gene. But the length of the mutation varies between individuals, and longer repeats are associated with earlier onset of symptoms. A huge new ... read more

When the ‘healthy’ HD gene functions as it should, one of its many jobs is in the development of normal embryos. Researchers have long assumed that the ‘mutant’ HD gene inherited by people with HD is still able to do this job, since HD patients develop normally and don’t show ... read more