Huntington’s ‘Clue’ Revealed by Research
Aug 14, 2009 | Posted by in Featured, Mental and Emotional Health | 0 Comments
Health care articles from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research indicate the existence of a “clue” to help identify individuals at risk from Huntington’s disease.
Researchers from the organization explain that they have discovered a mechanism that could trigger early cell death.
They add that studying the condition is made easier as the misfolded protein responsible for Huntington’s disease has already been identified.
However, the stages which lead it to result in cell damage and death have previously been unknown.
Now, in health care articles published in Genes & Development, the institute has shed some light on the process.
Martin Duennwald, principal scientist at Boston Biomedical Research Institute, explains that the issue relates to the body’s ability to rid itself of proteins.
Usually these are degraded within the endoplasmic reticulum – but when a mutated gene associated with Huntington’s is present, such degradation is inhibited.
The researcher explains that this leaves the body overloaded with unwanted proteins – which may result in damage or death of cells.
Previous health care articles published by Temple University identified a new family of genes which could be responsible for triggering cell death.
Novel Structure Proteins were singled out as potentially beginning the process of cell death known as apoptosis.