Huntington’s Disease

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a fatal genetic disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. It deteriorates a person’s physical and mental abilities usually during their prime working years and has no cure.

 

Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: W096
Diagnosis: Huntington’s Disease
US Patients:
World Patients:
Sex Ratio:
Age Onset: 30-50 years; The patient ultimately dies from the disease.
Brain Area: striatum (center)is affected first; then effects move out to damage other areas; caudate nucleus & putamen-brain center.
Symptoms: unsteady walking & lack of coordination. “chorea” = jerky, uncontrollable movements; saccadic (darting) eye movements
Progression: unable to talk; loss of decision-making and memory=lead to dementia; suicidal thoughts
Causes: gene from a parent, but 10% are new mutation; the mutant damages brain cells; genes do not skip generations.
Medications:
Therapies: stem-cells to replace lost neurons; Huntington’s is too complex to explain fairly here. It is both awful and fatal in the end.

Youtube Video:

Huntington’s Disease Treatment

Youtube Video: Living with Juvenile Huntington’s Disease

Amazon or Library Book: 2019 Huntington’s Disease

Click the book to link or order from Amazon.

Support Group: hdsa.org; huntingtonassoc.com

(Huntington’s Disease Society of America)

Contact your local Social Security office for possible Disability Benefits through their Disability Determination Services,

Section 12.02.

4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED

The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis 

Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.

  • Clinical experience and treatment considerations with vesicular monoamine transport 2 inhibitors
    by Kayla Johnson on December 20, 2024

    Vesicular monoamine transporter 2 inhibitors (VMAT2i) are currently Food and Drug Administration-approved for the treatment of Huntington disease chorea and tardive dyskinesia. Additionally, they are often used for other hyperkinetic movement disorders in clinical practice. Due to a lack of head-to-head clinical trials, management of VMAT2i in the clinical setting may be unclear and rely on the clinical experience of the practitioner. Due to the limited distribution model, which typically...

  • Recent advances in stem cell therapy: efficacy, ethics, safety concerns, and future directions focusing on neurodegenerative disorders - a review
    by Rekha Khandia on December 20, 2024

    Neurodegeneration refers to the gradual loss of neurons and extensive changes in glial cells like tau inclusions in astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, α-synuclein inclusions in oligodendrocytes and SOD1 aggregates in astrocytes along with deterioration in the motor, cognition, learning, and behavior. Common neurodegenerative disorders are Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington's disease (HD), spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA), and...

  • Pharmacology, Signaling and Therapeutic Potential of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 5 Negative Allosteric Modulators
    by Jackson A Kos on December 19, 2024

    Metabotropic glutamate receptors are a family of eight class C G protein-coupled receptors regulating higher order brain functions including cognition and motion. Metabotropic glutamate receptors have thus been heavily investigated as potential drug targets for treating neurological disorders. Drug discovery efforts directed toward metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGlu(5)) have been particularly fruitful, with a wealth of drug candidates and pharmacological tools identified. mGlu(5)...

  • 3D extrusion bioprinting of microbial inks for biomedical applications
    by Nicolas Burns on December 19, 2024

    In recent years, the field of 3D bioprinting has witnessed the intriguing development of a new type of bioink known as microbial inks. Bioinks, typically associated with mammalian cells, have been reimagined to involve microbes, enabling many new applications beyond tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. This review presents the latest advancements in microbial inks, including their definition, types, composition, salient characteristics, and biomedical applications. Herein, microbes are...