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Silencing Huntington's Disease |
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MONDAY, July 5 (HealthDayNews) -- Gene therapy designed to silence a disease gene in the brains of mice prevented neurological damage and symptoms caused by an ailment similar to Huntington's disease in humans, a new study says.
If this method can be used in humans, it could offer a way to treat Huntington's disease and other related neurological diseases.
"This is the first example of targeted gene silencing of a disease gene in the brains of live animals, and it suggests that this approach may eventually be useful for human therapies," senior author Beverly Davidson, a professor of internal medicine, physiology and biophysics, and neurology at the University of Iowa, said in a prepared statement.
"We have had success in tissue culture, but translating those ideas to animals models of disease has been a barrier. We seem to have broken through that barrier," she said.
The research appears in the July 4 online issue of Nature Medicine.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about Huntington's disease.
(SOURCE: University of Iowa, news release, July 4, 2004)
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