Huntington\u2019s disease attacks the part of the brain that controls movement, destroying nerves with a barrage of toxicity, yet leaves other parts relatively unscathed.<\/p>\n
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have established conclusively that an activating protein, called \u201cRhes,\u201d plays a pivotal role in focusing the toxicity of Huntington\u2019s in the striatum, a smallish section of the forebrain that controls body movement and is potentially involved in other cognitive functions such as working memory.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur study definitively confirms the role of Rhes in Huntington\u2019s disease,\u201d said TSRI Assistant Professor Srinivasa Subramaniam, who led the study. \u201cOur next step should be to develop drugs that inhibit its action.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an earlier study, Subramaniam and his colleagues showed that Rhes binds to a series of repeats in the huntingtin protein (named for its association with Huntington\u2019s disease), increasing the death of neurons. The new study shows deleting Rhes significantly reduces behavioural problems in animal models of the disease.<\/p>\n
In addition, the study took the research further and revealed the effects of adding Rhes to the cerebellum, a brain region normally not affected in Huntington\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Remarkably, Huntington disease animals injected with Rhes experienced an exacerbation of motor issues, including loss of balance and co-ordination. Subramaniam and his colleagues also found lesions and damaged neurons in the cerebellum, confirming Rhes is sufficient to promote toxicity and showing that even those regions of the brain normally impervious to damage can become vulnerable if Rhes is overexpressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps the biggest question to emerge from this study is whether Rhes is a good drug target for Huntington\u2019s disease,\u201d Subramaniam said. \u201cThe short answer is \u2018yes.\u2019 Drugs that disrupt Rhes could alleviate Huntington\u2019s pathology and motor symptoms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMany Huntington\u2019s disease patients experience psychiatric-related problems, such as depression and anxiety,\u201d added Supriya Swarnkar, the first author of the study and a member of Subramaniam\u2019s lab. \u201cBut it\u2019s unclear whether they are the cause or consequences of the disease. We think, by targeting Rhes, we might block the initiation of Huntington\u2019s, which we predict would afford protection against psychiatric-related problems as well.\u201d\nThe Scripps Research Institute<\/link>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Huntington\u2019s disease attacks the part of the brain that controls movement, destroying nerves with a barrage of toxicity, yet leaves other parts relatively unscathed. Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have established conclusively that an activating protein, called \u201cRhes,\u201d plays a pivotal role in focusing the toxicity of Huntington\u2019s in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}