Optimal time to treat Huntington’s disease identified

The earliest brain changes due to Huntington's disease can be detected 24 years before clinical symptoms show, according to a new UCL-led study. The researchers say their findings, published in The Lancet Neurology , could help with clinical trials by pinpointing the optimal time to begin treating the disease. There is currently no cure for Huntington's, a hereditary neurodegenerative disease, but recent advances in genetic therapies hold great promise. Researchers would ultimately like to treat people before the genetic mutation has caused any functional impairment. However, until now, it was unknown when the first signs of damage emerge - but as there is a genetic test for Huntington's susceptibility, researchers have a unique opportunity to study the disease before symptoms appear. Professor Sarah Tabrizi (UCL Huntington's Disease Centre, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology), the study lead, said: "Ultimately, our goal is to deliver the right drug at the right time to effectively treat this disease - ideally we would like to delay or prevent neurodegeneration while function is still intact, giving gene carriers many more years of life without impairment. "As the field makes great strides with the drug development, these findings provide vital new insights informing the best time to initiate treatments in the future, and represent a significant advance in our understanding of early Huntington's." The study, led by UCL researchers in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Cambridge and University of Iowa, investigated a large cohort of Huntington's mutation carriers at a much younger age than previously examined in detail.