Huntington’s disease: a perplexing neurological disease

Abstract

Huntington’s disease is an inherited intricate brain illness. It is a neurodegenerative, insidious disorder; the onset of the disease is very late to diagnose. It is caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the Huntingtin gene, which encodes an abnormally long polyglutamine repeat in the Huntingtin protein. Huntington’s disease has served as a model for the study of other more common neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Symptomatic treatment of Huntington’s disease involves use of Dopamine antagonists, presynaptic dopamine depleters, Antidepressants, Tranquillizers,Anxiolytic Benzodiazepines, Anticonvulsants and Antibiotics. Several medications including baclofen,idebenone and vitamin E, Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) have been studied in clinical trials with limited samples. In the present article, we have concentrated on clinical features, diagnosis, symptomatic approaches, symptomatic treatment and other therapies involved in the management of Huntington’s disease.

Key words: Neurodegeneration, Polyglutamine, Huntingtin, Symptomatic treatment