Protein shows promise against Huntington’s disease

Written by Lauren Pulling

Researchers from Imperial College London (UK) have developed a protein that could curb activity of the Huntington’s disease (HD) gene, huntingtin, showing promise for new treatments for the disease. In the study on mice, the engineered protein successfully targeted huntingtin and reduced activity for six months: significantly longer than previous studies. The protein is an engineered zinc finger, which specifically targets mutant copies of huntingtin that cause the typical pathology and symptoms seen in HD. In the new study, published Molecular Degeneration, 12 mice with HD were injected with a single dose of the protein, resulting in repression of the...

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