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Prevention
By Mayo Clinic staff
If you have a family history of Huntington's disease, you may want to consider genetic counseling before starting a family. A blood test can determine the presence of the faulty gene, even before you show signs or symptoms. If one parent carries the defective gene, his or her child has a 50 percent chance of developing Huntington's disease.
If you're at risk of passing the genetic defect that causes Huntington's disease to your children, you may wish to consider adoption or certain forms of assisted reproduction. One possibility is in vitro fertilization with pre-implantation screening. In this procedure, embryos are screened for the Huntington's disease gene mutation, and those that don't have the mutation are then implanted in the woman's uterus.
- Huntington's disease: Hope through research. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/huntington/detail_huntington.htm. Accessed March 27, 2009.
- Huntington's disease. The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec16/ch221/ch221e.html#sec16-ch221-ch221e-49. Accessed March 27, 2009.
- SuttonBrown MA, et al. Huntington disease: Clinical features and diagnosis. http://uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 12, 2009.
- Learning about Huntington's disease. National Human Genome Research Institute. http://www.genome.gov/page.cfm?pageID=10001215. Accessed March 27, 2009.
- Trushina E, et al. Mutant huntingtin inhibits clathrin-independent endocytosis and causes accumulation of cholesterol in vitro and in vivo. Human Molecular Genetics. 2006;15:3578.
- Katsuno M, et al. Getting a handle on Huntington's disease: The case for cholesterol. Nature Medicine. 2009;15:253.
- FDA approves first drug for treatment of chorea in Huntington's disease. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01874.html. Accessed March 28, 2009.
- Kim SU. Stem cell-based cell therapy in neurological diseases: A review. Journal of Neuroscience Research. In press. Accessed March 28, 2009.
- ACR16. Neurosearch.com. http://www.neurosearch.com/Default.aspx?ID=752. Accessed March 28, 2009.
