In:
eLife, eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, Vol. 7 ( 2018-09-04)
Abstract:
Huntington’s disease is a devastating brain disorder that causes severe mood disorders, problems with moving, and dementia. Most people develop the condition between their thirties and fifties, and die a decade or two after the symptoms first appear. The disease emerges because of a mutation in the gene for the Huntingtin protein, which leads to neurons slowly dying in the brain. While genetic testing can reveal who carries the faulty gene, no treatment addresses the root of the disorder or prevents it from appearing. Instead, most therapies for Huntington’s disease aim to reduce brain damage once the telltale symptoms are already present. However, the disease-causing protein is expressed early during the life of a patient, which could give it time to damage the brain long before neurons die and the disorder reveals itself. Treatments that start after the first signs of the disease may be too late to reverse the damage. Detecting and preventing early brain changes in people that carry the mutation may thus help to stop the disease from progressing. Here, Arnoux, Willam, Griesche et al. set out to detect the minute changes that the faulty Huntingtin protein may cause in the brain network of young mice with the mutation. State-of-the-art imaging tools helped to examine individual neurons in the brain area that processes visual information. These experiments revealed that a group of brain cells had become hyperactive; once this change had occurred, the mutant animals were less anxious than is typical for mice. Metformin is a drug used to treat diabetes, but it also interferes with a structure that is required to produce the disease-causing Huntingtin protein. Arnoux et al. therefore explored whether the compound could rescue the early brain alterations observed in mutant mice. Adding metformin in the water of the animals for three weeks halted the production of the mutant protein, reversed the brain changes and stopped the abnormal behavior. Further work is now required in humans to confirm that Huntington’s disease starts with a change in the activity of networks in the brain, and to verify that metformin can stop the disorder in its track.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2050-084X
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.001
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.002
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.003
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.007
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.008
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.004
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.005
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.006
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.009
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.010
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.011
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.012
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.015
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.013
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.014
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.016
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.018
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.017
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.019
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.020
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.023
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.021
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.022
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.024
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.026
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.025
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.027
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.031
DOI:
10.7554/eLife.38744.032
Language:
English
Publisher:
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Publication Date:
2018
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2687154-3