Huntingtons Disease
Huntingtons DiseaseHuntington’s Background
Huntington’s disease is inherited as an autosomal dominant disease that gives rise to
progressive, elective (localized) neural cell death associated with choreic movements
(uncontrollable movements of the arms, legs, and face) and dementia. It is one of the
more common inherited brain disorders. About 25,000 Americans have it and another
60,000 or so will carry the defective gene and will develop the disorder as they age.
Physical deterioration occurs over a period of 10 to 20 years, usually beginning in a
person’s 30’s or 40’s. The gene is dominant and thus does not skip generations.
Having the gene means a 92 percent chance of getting the disease. The disease is
associated with increases in the length of a CAG triplet repeat present in a gene
called ‘huntington’ located on chromosome 4. The classic signs of Huntington disease
are progressive chorea, rigidity, and dementia, frequently associated with seizures.
Studies & Research
Studies were done to determine if somatic mtDNA (mitochondria DNA) mutations might
contribute to the neurodegeneration observed in Huntington’s disease. Part of the
research was to analyze cerebral deletion levels in the temporal and frontal lobes.
Research hypothesis: HD patients have significantly higher mtDNA deletionlevels than
agematched controls in the frontal and temporal lobes of the cortex. To test the
hypothesis, the amount of mtDNA deletion in 22 HD patients brains was examined by serial
dilution-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and compared the results with mtDNA deletion
levels in 25 aged matched controls.
Brain tissues from three cortical regions were taken during an autopsy (from the 22 HD
symptomatic HD patients): frontal lobe, temporal lobe and occipital lobe, and putamen.
Molecular analyses were performed on genomic DNA isolated from 200 mg of frozen brain
regions as described above. The HD diagnosis was confirmed in patients by PCR amplification
of the trinucleotide repeat in the IT 15 gene. One group was screened with primers that
included polymorphism and the other was screened without the polymorphism.
After heating the reaction to 94 degreesC for 4 minutes, 27 cycles of 1 minute at 94
degreesC and 2 minutes at 67 degreesC, tests were performed. The PCR products were
settled on 8% polyacrylamide gels....
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