Moving Upstream in Huntington's

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and The Scripps Research Institute each have published new strategies to treat Huntington's disease, a condition for whichthere is only one approved drug (see Attacking Huntington's disease).^1,2 The Harvard group showed that inhibiting cytochrome C release from the mitochondria might effectively combat the disease. The Scripps team described a more upstream approach-using histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors to curb transcriptional dysregulation.

Companies and academics interviewed by SciBX had safety concerns about both approaches, but they think that if these issues are addressed, the strategies could be used together...