Target hunting(tin)

By homing in on the pool of genes encoding proteins that interact with the huntingtin protein, which is implicated in Huntington's disease, researchers have isolated 17 new disease targets and shown that such a protein-interactor-to-gene strategy may enrich drug discovery efforts.

At the molecular level, Huntington's disease (HD) is known to be associated with an expansion of the glutamine tract on the N-terminus of the huntingtin protein (Htt), which causes formation of protein aggregates in the brain and neurotoxicity. It's also known that Htt interacts with an eclectic group of proteins, with functions ranging from intracellular transport and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis to transcription...