In Major Breakthrough, Scientists Successfully Treat Devastating Brain Disease Huntington's for the First Time

"A research team says that for the first time in history, it's successfully treated Huntington's disease, a devastating and inherited disorder that kills nerve cells and leads to rapid decline and death. Until now, the disease had no treatment to cure it or alter its course. Patients tend to succumb to the disease within 15 to 20 years after the onset of symptoms, which include trouble focusing, irritability, suicidal thoughts, and other mental health conditions, as well as uncontrolled movements affecting muscles across the body."

"As the BBC reports, University College London researchers have developed a new type of gene therapy that needs to be administered during lengthy brain surgery. Trial data shows that the development of Huntington's was slowed by an astonishing 75 percent in patients, effectively giving them decades of "good quality life," as University College London Huntington's Disease Centre director Sarah Tabrizi told the BBC."

"It's a major win for medical science, and a glimmer of hope for those whose parents had Huntington's - as there's a 50 percent chance that they will also develop the disease. Results from the trial have yet to be released, let alone peer-reviewed, but there are reasons to be optimistic. According to the BBC, cognition and motor function tests showed that the development of the disorder was slowed by an average of 75 percent three years after the procedure."

Huntington's disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder that destroys nerve cells and causes cognitive decline, psychiatric symptoms, and uncontrolled movements, often resulting in death 15 to 20 years after symptom onset. About 41,000 Americans show symptoms and over 200,000 are at risk. A new University College London gene therapy, administered during lengthy brain surgery, reduced disease progression by roughly 75% in trial participants over three years according to cognition and motor tests. Some patients avoided wheelchair dependence and one returned to work. Trial results are not yet peer-reviewed. The treatment reduces levels of the toxic huntingtin protein.

Read at Futurism