Feinstein Institute of Medical Research investigators in Manhasset have discovered that the use of positron emission tomography can track the progression of Huntington’s disease, according to a press release issued by the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Health System on Friday.
Feinstein researchers used positron emission tomography scanning to map changes in brain metabolism in 12 people with the gene for Huntington’s disease who had not yet developed the illness, monitoring a characteristic set of brain abnormalities over the course of seven years to study the disease’s progression, according to the release,
Huntington’s disease is inherited genetically, passed from parent to child through mutation. The child of a parent with Huntington’s disease has a 50-50 chance of inheriting the gene, according to the release, and those who inherit the gene will eventually develop the disease.
The progression rates found in the study were then compared through independent measurements taken in scans from a separate group people carrying the Huntington’s disease gene who had previously been studied in the Netherlands, leading investigators to believe the disease’s progression network could be used in developing new drugs for other degenerative brain disorders, according to the release.
“Huntington’s disease is an extremely debilitating disease,” Dr. David Eidelberg, who heads the Institute’s Center for Neurosciences, said in a statement. “The findings make it possible to evaluate the effects of new drugs on disease progression before symptoms actually appear.
“This is a major advance in the field,” he added.
Genetic testing can be used to determine whether a person carries the gene for Huntington’s disease, which would provide scientists the opportunity to study the disease’s development even before a person showed symptoms of the illness, according to the release.
Even though a person may not have shown signs of the disease, according to the release, those carrying the Huntington’s disease gene will have already experienced major changes in the brain that lead to severe disability.
The institute’s findings have been published in the September issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
