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Huntington’s disease research news.In plain language.Written by scientists.For the global HD community. |
Amongst the general population, cancer is one of the most feared killers. HD families might be forgiven for not thinking much about cancer, given the more obvious clear and present danger. But it turns out that there might be a connection between the mutation that causes HD and the risk of developing cancer, which could help us understand both conditions.
We know that exercise slows down symptom progression in HD mice, but we don't know why. New research has shown that exercise boosts a cellular recycling process in mouse muscle. These findings could increase our understanding of HD and help develop drugs.
We're pleased to announce the HDBuzz prize, an opportunity for early-career Huntington's disease researchers to get involved in communicating HD science to the global community, see their work published here and win real human money!
Huntington's disease may be incurable - but it's far from untreatable. But the care patients receive from professionals can be inconsistent. Now, a series of recently published internationally-agreed guidelines will help 'level up' everyone's care to the best standards.
New work suggests that neurons made from stem cells can replace adult neurons better than we thought – at least in mice whose brains have been injured with a toxin. How likely is this to help HD patients – is cell replacement possible in a more chronic condition?
In this special report, we review the 2012 Annual Huntington's Disease Therapeutics Conference, the year's biggest gathering of HD drug hunters. We left impressed with a few big themes. The rapid advancement of drugs designed for HD - the emergence of a "systems biology" approach to considering the disease in its entirety - and the increasing understanding that's emerging to help us design and run trials to have big impact on HD.
A study in yeast has highlighted a DNA-reading protein called SPT4 as possibly controlling which CAG-containing genes are active. Since Huntington's disease is caused by a gene with a long CAG stretch, this might be important for understanding how the HD gene works.
Our third and final daily report from the annual Huntington's Disease Therapeutics Conference in Palm Springs, California. We will be publishing a summary article and interviews from the conference over the next few weeks.
Our second daily report from the annual Huntington's Disease Therapeutics Conference in Palm Springs, California. The second day's sessions focused on gene silencing. You can tweet @HDBuzzFeed or email palmsprings@hdbuzz.net with your questions, comments and queries.
