Blood biomarker found to track development of Huntington’s disease
pharmafile | June 8, 2017 | News story | Research and Development | UCL, huntington's disease
Huntington’s disease (HD) is a rare and incurable hereditary condition of the central nervous system. The condition can cause involuntary movements, altered behaviour and becomes progressively worse as time passes.
At present, the only method to track the disease progression in those susceptible is through neuroimaging or through cerebrospinal fluid tests – both of which are difficult and expensive to perform. New research could revolutionise this process by allowing tracking of the disease by a simple blood test.
Researchers from UCL were looking for a biomarker to identify onset of the condition and subsequent development. They struck upon a test that measures the levels of neurofilament light chain (NFL), a protein that is released from damaged brain cells.
In 366 volunteers followed over three years, the test was found to be an accurate predictor of disease onset. In those individuals who possessed the faulty genetic code that predisposed them to HD but had not yet displayed signs of the disease, they were still found to have higher levels of NFL compared to control individuals.
The significance of the discovery is that it could aid in the development of new drugs to combat the condition. It would those trying to establish a drug candidate to identify whether disease progression had slowed or stopped, by examining levels of NFL in the blood.
“We have been trying to identify blood biomarkers to help track the progression of HD for well over a decade, and this is the best candidate that we have seen so far,” said Dr Wild. “Neurofilament has the potential to serve as a speedometer in Huntington’s disease, since a single blood test reflects how quickly the brain is changing. That could be very helpful right now as we are testing a new generation of so-called ‘gene silencing’ drugs that we hope will put the brakes on the condition. Measuring neurofilament levels could help us figure out whether those brakes are working.”
Researchers stressed that there are more tests that need to take place before the new blood test can become an active part of measuring condition progression. However, the development is a promising for a condition that currently has no active treatment beyond managing symptoms.
Ben Hargreaves
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