Huntington’s Disease

By: Lacey Field

Huntington’s Disease is a genetic disease where nerve cells deteriorate in the brain. People diagnosed with this disease typically die 10 to 30 years after showing symptoms; however, most people are not aware of having the disease.

Symptoms

Personality changes (irritability, depression, anger)

Indecision Balancing Issues Clumsiness Jerky movements Dementia

Causes

Huntington’s Disease is a genetic disease, so it is given from the parent to the child. This is referred to as autosomal dominant because only one parent needs to gene that codes for the disease to pass it on to their child.

Causes (more technical)

Huntington’s Disease occurs because of a genetic defect on chromosome #4. This defect makes a CAG repeat occur more rapidly than it typically should. Normally the CAG repeat occurs 10 to 35 times, yet the defect causes it to repeat 36 to 120 times, which is abnormal. The greater the number of CAG repeats, the higher the chance of receiving the disease.

Who Gets it

The disease is usually noticed once the person is and adult. If a child’s parent has the disease or has family members that have/had been diagnosed with the disease, they should check to see if they have the disease. Anyone is susceptible to it, it just depends on family history.

Tests Figuring out if a person has or carries

Huntington’s disease is somewhat complicated. A CT or MRI scan will show if brain tissue has

been lost (a sign of Huntington’s Disease). DNA marker studies can be used to see if you

carry the gene for Huntington’s disease

Medicine

As of this time, there are no cures for Huntington’s Disease.

Doctors will prescribe tetrabenazine, which minimizes the jerky movements.

Some tranquilizers have proved helpful, but they have severe side effects.

Speech and physical therapy can also help.

Prevention

Because Huntington’s Disease is a genetic disorder, any adult with this disease or any adult that carries the gene runs the risk of passing it on to their children.

Adults should consider adoption or other forms of reproduction.

In Vitro Fertilization with Pre-Implantation Screening is an important new discovery.

In Vitro with Screening In Vitro Fertilization with Pre- Implantation

Screening is a process in which embryos are screened for Huntington’s Disease, and those that do not have the CAG mutation will be implanted into the woman for fertilization.

This minimizes the chance of passing on the disease to the children.