Huntington’s disease is a neuro-degenerative disorder in which nerve cells in the brain are damaged. It is inherited, caused by defects in a single gene. Huntington’s effects include changes in behavior and emotions, involuntary jerky movements, and cognitive difficulties. To date there have been no effective drugs or other treatments. Consequently, there has been considerable excitement over the announcement of positive results of a Phase 1 trial of a drug for Huntington’s.

The drug is a synthetic single strand of DNA which has been customized to latch onto the Huntington messenger molecule, thereby blocking it’s action. There is excitement that similar custom DNA molecules could be created for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Needless to say, there is much hard work ahead.

Here are four media articles about the announcement (Publication will occur at a later date.):

Excitement as trial shows Huntington’s drug could slow progress of disease

Drug trial shows promising results to fight Huntington’s disease

Drug lowers deadly Huntington’s disease protein

First trials of Huntington’s drug show it could slow disease

All four links have been added to Neuro-Psych