Subtle signs of neurodegeneration can be detected in blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and through neuroimaging, up to two decades before motor symptoms in Huntington’s disease (HD) present, new research showed.
Investigators believe these early biomarkers could pave the way for novel interventions that could improve outcomes for individuals at risk for HD.
“Decades before the onset of motor symptoms, we discovered that the rate of somatic cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) repeat expansion is predictive of the earliest loss of striatal neurons in humans,” study investigator Sarah Tabrizi, PhD, director of Huntington’s Disease Center, University College London in London, England, told Medscape Medical News.
“These sensitive biomarker measures will help us design prevention trials, which has never…