Research Advances in Huntington’s Disease

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neurodegenerative Diseases".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (2 March 2021) | Viewed by 2518

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Ave, Kirstein 228, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Interests: Huntington’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Dystonia
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

There has never been a more hopeful time in the history of research on Huntington’s Disease. We are on the cusp of discovering new ways to measure the disease, new medications that manage symptoms, and new interventions that alter the disease’s course. This Special Issue of Brain Sciences aims to present work in progress or recently completed that will bring optimism to the scientific and clinical communities. 

Dr. Samuel Frank
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Huntington’s Disease
  • chorea
  • experimental neurotherapeutics

Published Papers (1 paper)

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14 pages, 1391 KiB  
Article
Longitudinal Evaluation of the Effect of Tricyclic Antidepressants and Neuroleptics on the Course of Huntington’s Disease—Data from a Real World Cohort
by Jannis Achenbach, Carsten Saft and Simon Faissner
Brain Sci. 2021, 11(4), 413; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11040413 - 25 Mar 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1975
Abstract
Background: Reducing the progress of neurodegeneration is a key goal in Huntington´s disease (HD). A previously performed systematic screening for medications with neuroprotective features identified tricyclic antidepressants and neuroleptics as neuroprotective and mitochondrioprotective agents. Here, we analyzed the characteristics of disease manifestation, progression [...] Read more.
Background: Reducing the progress of neurodegeneration is a key goal in Huntington´s disease (HD). A previously performed systematic screening for medications with neuroprotective features identified tricyclic antidepressants and neuroleptics as neuroprotective and mitochondrioprotective agents. Here, we analyzed the characteristics of disease manifestation, progression and potential beneficial effects in HD patients treated with afore-mentioned medications compared to un- and otherwise treated motor-manifest patients in a large real-world cohort over two years. Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data of the largest cohort worldwide of motor-manifest HD patients using the ENROLL-HD database, including demographic, moleculargenetic, clinical-motoric, cognitive and functional data. Longitudinal data of up to two years were obtained to analyze potential effects on disease progression between groups with different medications used. Data were analyzed using repeated ANOVA-analyses while controlling for the co-variates age and CAG-repeat length. Results: We identified n = 7397 motor-manifest HD patients using no or different medication (HD-ctrl) and subgroups treated with clomipramine (n = 56), clozapine (n = 66), chlorpromazine (n = 17), doxepine (n = 34) and desi-, imi- or trimipramine (n = 19). Demographic parameters, disease onset and CAP-score did not differ. Total motor scores (TMS) at baseline were higher in patients treated with clozapine (p < 0.001), chlorpromazine and clomipramine (p < 0.05) compared to HD-ctrl with higher sub scores for bradykinesia (all p < 0.01) and dystonia in clozapine treated patients (p < 0.001). Functional and cognitive capacities were worse in medication groups in comparison to HD-ctrl at baseline (p < 0.001). Repeated measures analysis of variance documented no differences regarding motoric, functional and cognitive disease progressions between groups. Conclusions: We identified group differences, potentially caused by side effects or potential selection bias in terms of bradykinetic motoric symptoms, more dystonia and lower functional and cognitive performance in some treatment groups at baseline, which were not entirely explained because of underlying fundamental characteristics. Disease progression regarding clinical, functional and cognitive outcomes over two years was not affected by any of the treatment groups compared to HD-ctrl. Our data do not support our hypothesis of a potential neuroprotective effect of these drugs on disease progression. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Advances in Huntington’s Disease)
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