Huntington Disease Genetics

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In Science there are many different types of diseases that have been discovered, some of those diseases have been linked to genetics. One specific genetic disease is Huntington’s disease. Huntington’s disease is a genetically linked disease that is cause by a dominant allele. While Huntington’s disease is genetic, there is concepts behind as to how exactly Huntington’s disease becomes genetically linked to an individual who acquires the disease. Huntington’s disease is a genetic disease that has been deemed fatal because of the nature and side effects of the disease. The disease affects motor, cognitive, and physical abilities of each individual affected by the disease. The disease is ruled a degenerating disease because the lack of motor, cognitive, and physical abilities leads to dementia, and or depression. The disease is classified as a dominant inherited neurodegenerative disease, which is caused by CAG trinucleotide expansion in the exon 1 of the Huntingtin gene (Bissonnette 1). There is multiple numbers of CAG (glutamine) repeats in the Huntingtin gene. Polyglutamine expansions lead to a number of cellular abnormalities (Journal of Neuroscience). The chromosomes during development as a fetus are affected, chromosome four is the chromosome associated with change in the Huntingtin gene. The Huntingtin gene can be passed down from either male or female. The Huntingtin gene is expanded on one of the two chromosome fours. Either the mom or dad can have an expanded chromosome four gene which would be passed down, and looked as dominant. If one parent is affected with one of the two chromosome fours he or she is carrying that will be passed down to the child. About half of the eggs will contain the chromosome with the expanded H... ... middle of paper ... ... cells and causes an abundance of protein in the nuclei of cells. Usually the chromosome affected of someone who has Huntington’s disease is the Chromosome number four. Higher number of repeats of the CAG worse the symptoms and more likely to develop Huntington’s disease, the lower number of repeats the less likely you are to have symptoms and or develop Huntington’s disease. While it is a devastating disease there is research being done to try and slow the progression of this disease and or reduce development of the disease? The Mithramcyin treatment testing conducted on mice shed light on a possibility of probably helping individuals with Huntington’s disease and possibility slowing down degenerating brain function, and or loss of mobility skills. Hopefully in the near future Huntington’s disease will be more under control and help individuals who suffer from it.

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