WIKIMEDIA, EUROPEAN BIOINFORMATICS INSTITUTE, JAWAHAR SWAMINATHAN/MSD STAFF
Aggregates of the Huntington’s disease-associated protein, huntingtin, can spread among neurons, according to a study published last month (July 13) in Nature Neuroscience, giving credence, experts suggest, to the idea that the propagation of mutant proteins may be a unifying feature of neurodegenerative diseases.
Huntington’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that impairs both movement and cognition, is caused by dominant mutations in the huntingtin gene that lead to abnormally long stretches of the amino acid glutamine in the huntingtin protein. These proteins tend to clump in affected neurons, although whether the aggregates are a cause of neurodegeneration or perhaps some kind of cellular response to the mutant protein is still a matter of debate.
The huntingtin gene is expressed throughout the nervous system, so it ...
