WASHINGTON — Scientists have discovered a clue regarding the delayed progression of Huntington’s disease. Additionally, they may have found a potential solution to halt the advancement of this fatal brain disorder.
However, geneticist Bob Handsaker revealed on November 2 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics that in certain brain cells, the repeated sequences can multiply over time, reaching hundreds of copies. Once the number of repeats surpasses a specific threshold, the behavior of thousands of other genes in these brain cells undergoes significant changes, ultimately leading to cell death.
These findings indicate that the addition of repeats to the HTT gene in vulnerable brain cells is the driving force behind Huntington’s disease. Handsaker, from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, suggests that preventing the growth of these repeats may impede the development of the disease.
This new research provides “valuable insights into the disease mechanism,” according to Russell Snell, a geneticist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand who was not involved in the study.
2023-11-14 11:00:00
Article from www.sciencenews.org
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