Friday, March 28, 2014

Mouse Study May Shed Light on Huntington's Disease


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The article attached to this link discusses new findings that may help patients suffering from Huntington’s disease. Huntington’s disease is caused by an amino acid deficiency that causes brain degeneration which affects the patient corpus striatum; it can cause damage to 90 percent of the corpus striatum section of the brain. This disease is hereditary, and a cure has yet to be found even though the cause has been known for some number of years. It has been known that a lack of the amino acid cysteine causes the damage to the corpus striatum, and studies on mice diets have been showing some promising signs. It has been seen that the mice feed a diet high in cysteine found in foods like wheat germ and whey protein have had a positive reaction, because it adds the cysteine that the patient is missing. The positive responses seen on the test mice will hopefully lead to helping patients dealing with Huntington’s disease.

Huntington’s disease is a very difficult disease to deal with both the patient and their families; this article goes over a little more about how it affects the patient’s health. This is a very important study because Huntington’s disease cause a lot of pain for the patient, and affects the family both mentally and physically. 

1 comment:

  1. This discovery is great for Huntington's disease patients and their families. My friend's father has it, so it is encouraging that scientist are starting to find a way to improve the symptoms.

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