Fatal brain disease holds new clue to dementia
A Howard Florey Institute-University of Melbourne research team has found a clue to the causes of dementia symptoms in Huntington’s disease, a disease which results from genetically programmed degeneration of brain cells in certain areas of the brain. This degeneration causes uncontrolled movements, loss of intellectual faculties, and emotional disturbance.
The researchers found that mice susceptible to the disease have problems with learning and memory before the disease’s typical movement problems appear. The researchers also discovered that in Huntington’s diseased brains, information processing between neurons is disrupted, but the neurons do not die, which means the brain may respond to new anti-dementia drugs that can restore memory.
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