Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have designed tiny RNA molecules that shut off the gene that causes Huntington's disease without damaging that gene's healthy counterpart, which maintains the health and vitality of neurons.

RE1-silencing transcription factor (REST) inhibits expression of neuronal genes in non-neural cells. Huntingtin sequesters REST in the cytoplasm of neurons, precluding transcriptional repression and allowing neuronal specification.

A new study reveals a link between dysregulation of a common signaling pathway and repetitive behaviors similar to those associated with multiple neurological and neurodegenerative disorders including, autism spectrum disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Huntington's disease.

The damage to brain tissue seen in Huntington's disease may be caused by an overactive immune response in the bloodstream and the brain, according to new findings from two teams of researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and University College London. The findings will be published online July 14 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Huntington's disease normally only begins to cause its tell-tale memory and physical coordination impairments after affected individuals reach the age of 30.

Research using newly developed Magnetic Resonance Imaging technology could soon allow clinicians to confirm Huntington's disease before symptoms appear in people who have the gene for the fatal brain disease.

On June 10, 2008 the scientific journal "Vaccine" published a paper by the Massachusetts based biotech company Cure Lab, Inc., demonstrating that a protein sequence important in neurodegenerative Huntington's disease can be safely used as a new generation of vaccine adjuvants.

Scientists have created a tool for mopping up the clumps of mutant protein that drive neurodegeneration in Huntington's disease. Emory University researchers engineered a virus to make an intracellular antibody or "intrabody" against huntingtin, the protein whose mutant forms poison the brain cells of people with Huntington's.

Scientists have developed the first genetically altered monkey model that replicates some symptoms observed in patients with Huntington's disease, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Researchers are now able to better understand this complex, devastating and incurable genetic disorder affecting the brain.

Model is expected to help researchers better understand the disease and develop more effective therapies as well as lead the way toward transgenic nonhuman primate models of other genetic diseases

Research at the University of Cambridge funded by the Wellcome Trust has provided a number of promising new drug targets for Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disease.

Research funded by the Wellcome Trust has provided a number of promising new drug targets for Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disease. Scientists at the University of Cambridge have identified a number of candidate drugs to investigate further which encourage cells to "eat" the malformed proteins that lead to the disease.