Prospects of etiopathogenetic treatment of Huntington’s disease

Abstract

Huntington’s disease is a serious inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by of motor, cognitive and psychiatric features. The disease is caused by an abnormally expanded CAG repeat expansion in the HTT gene and the production of mutant huntingtin protein.The disease usually manifests in adulthood, but the manifestation in childhood and youth is also described, which is noted in 5–10 % of cases. The disease predominantly affects the neostriatum, resulting in a characteristic clinical picture.The most promising approaches to etiotropic therapy of Huntington’s disease are a number of DNA- (CRISPR/Cas9 system) and RNA-directed methods (antisense oligonucleotides, RNA interference), methods that directly reduce the level of mutant gentingtin (chimera molecules), as well as approaches based on inactivating the DNA mismatch repair system using the FAN1 enzyme.