WeAreHD.org - The Social Support Network for People Living with Huntington's Disease

  Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 5:40 PM Subject: WE NEED YOUR HELP TO GET TETRABENAZINE APPROVED BY THE FDA   Dear Friends, As you may have heard from previous emails, the FDA is considering whether or not to approve tetrabenazine. They’re meeting on December 6 in Beltsville, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC: Details of the meeting: Date:     December 6, 2007 Place:     Sheraton College Park Hotel - The Ballroom 4095 Powder Mill Road Beltsville, Maryland Time:     8am-5pm (ET) 1-2pm (ET) - Open Session to hear testimony from the public IT’S CRUCIAL THAT WE HAVE THIS DRUG!!! No one doubts its efficacy and it...

 NEW YORK (Thomson Financial) - Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. Friday said it would receive up to $9.9 million from CHDI Inc. to develop a drug treatment for Huntington's Disease. CHDI, a nonprofit foundation pursuing treament for Huntington's, will provide the funding over three years. The money will be used to develop an antisense drug that targets the huntingtin gene. A previous collaboration between the two companies demonstrated the feasibility of using antisense drugs to treat Huntington's, Isis said. CHDI also provided the funding in that study. Shares of Isis, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based developer of pharmaceutical drugs, closed Thursday at $17.34. Ryan Vlastelica More @ http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/10/26/afx4266350.html ...

By Ann Gaba, Ed.D, RD and Carol Boozer, D.Sc. This study was done to compare the total energy expenditure and energy intake of people with early-stage HD to a comparison group, matched by gender, age, height, weight, and race. All the study participants spent 24 hours in the Human Respiratory Chamber at the Obesity Research Centerto measure how many calories they utilized in a day. In addition to being able to measure energy expenditure, the Human Respiratory Chamber is also equipped with a special motionsensing floor, which measures movement very precisely. It also provides information about the amount of force being applied...

Predictions for the future of the Huntington's disease (HD) market vary widely, depending on whether the right drug can be found. With a strong genetic link and a freely available reliable genetic diagnostic test, prophylactic treatment with a disease-modifying drug could dramatically expand the treatable patient population. Datamonitor estimates that by incorporating pre-symptomatic patients into the patient pool, and with the launch of a theoretical disease-modifying therapy, the potential value of the HD market could exceed $3 billion per annum. However, based on the current drug pipeline and patient population, the HD market is forecast to be worth $202 million...

  Combination treatment of Huntington's disease using lithium and rapamycin   Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by a polyglutamine expansion mutation in the huntingtin protein that confers a toxic gain-of-function and causes the protein to become aggregate-prone. The toxic aggregates or collections are cleared by a process called “macroautophagy”.    Rapamycin accelerates this clearance. Rapamycin is an antibiotic and it is considered as a potential treatment for Huntington’s disease. It has shown good results in fruit fly and mouse models. Rapamycin works by inducing autophagy which clears away the HD protein fragments. Rapamycin inhibits a target on the cell called mTOR. Inhibiting mTOR improves autophagy....

 The nation's top science award - the Rutherford Medal - has been awarded to brain researcher Professor Richard Faull, of Auckland University. Professor Faull, an international expert in neuroscience, earlier this year announced findings allowing researchers to look at new ways to regenerate brain cells and repair damage to the areas of the brain affected by degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's. Science Minister Pete Hodgson yesterday presented the medal - awarded by the national science academy, the Royal Society - to Professor Faull at a science honours dinner in Dunedin. Royal Society chief executive Di McCarthy said the professor's research had shown that...

 Melbourne, Nov 19 - Handwriting can reveal whether a person has a heart condition, indicates a new study in Britain though some scientists disagree.   Handwriting researcher Cristina Strang, who led the study in Britain, said previous studies have only focused on the effects of neurological conditions such as Parkinson's, Huntington's and Alzheimer's diseases on a person's handwriting.   She wanted to see if cardiac disease could also have an effect on the handwriting.   Strang analysed the handwriting of over 100 people in their early 60s, including 61 patients who had been diagnosed with cardiac disease. She also looked at the writing of 41 people...

 Avicena Group, a late-stage biotechnology company that develops central nervous systemtherapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases, has reported that its novel Huntington's disease treatment candidate HD-02 demonstrated positive results in a clinical study.   The open-label, dose escalation study, which evaluated daily administration of HD-02 in doses ranging from 10 to 40 grams, showed that a 30 gram dose provided the optimal levels of efficacy, safety, and tolerability. The researchers also observed a slower cognitive decline and a sustained reduction in brain atrophy at the 30 gram dose level. These findings demonstrate the disease-modifying potential of HD-02 and provided the rationale for a Phase III study...

The 1993 discovery of the gene, which triggers HD when it malfunctions, jump-started research on this devastating disease. Scientists hope that a multi-faceted approach will lead to a cure. Research is proceeding in many directions: Basic neurobiology: Scientists are continuing to study the HD gene to better understand how it causes disease.   Imaging: Scientists can observe what the defective gene does to various structures in the brain and how it affects the body's chemistry and metabolism using PET scanning and other imaging technologies. ...

WASHINGTON --  Your DNA has the hiccups. It stutters, gags, repeats itself and skips stuff like a nervous teenager giving a speech in school.   Scientists are studying the effects of those irregularities in the human genetic code. Some variations cause disease. Others can help identify criminals, trace ancestors and shed light on the course of evolution. The human genome -- the collection of genes strung along the long ribbon of DNA coiled inside each cell -- is turning out to be a lot more complicated than researchers first thought. It's not a straightforward chain of 3 billion chemical units -- labeled A, C, G...

 CombinatoRx, Incorporated (NASDAQ: CRXX) announced that it has received the Marjorie Guthrie Leadership Award from the Huntington's Disease Society of America (HDSA) during their 40th Anniversary Guthrie Awards Dinner in New York City to benefit the Woody and Marjorie Guthrie Research fund. Alexis Borisy, President and CEO of CombinatoRx was present to accept the award. The Guthrie Family created the Woody and Marjorie Guthrie Research fund to pay tribute to the legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie, who died from complications associated with Huntington's disease (HD), and to his widow, Marjorie, who founded the HDSA 40 years ago and worked tirelessly to...

 SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Medivation, Inc. today announced that David Hung, M.D., president and chief executive officer, will present at the Acumen BioFin Rodman & Renshaw 9th Annual Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, November 6, at 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time at the New York Palace Hotel. Dr. Hung will provide an overview of Medivation and its clinical development programs for Dimebon(TM) for Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases and MDV3100 for prostate cancer. The Company reported results from its Phase 2 efficacy study of Dimebon in Alzheimer's disease in June 2007, showing that Dimebon improved the clinical course of patients by demonstrating meaningful...

 BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (OTCBB: BCLI), a leading developer of adult stem cell technologies and therapeutics, is pleased to announce that it has completed a second equity financing closing with ACCBT Corp., a company under the control of BrainStorm's President, Chaim Lebovits. Proceeds from the financing will be used to build a Vivarian facility to test BrainStorm technologies, as well as to conduct preclinical studies, efficacy and toxicity in connection with the Company's efforts to treat and cure Parkinson's disease and ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), and allow BrainStorm to extend its research to focus on additional illnesses. “BrainStorm appreciates the continued...

 NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - Work on a new research center at the University of Oklahoma is under way following groundbreaking ceremonies. The Stephenson Life Sciences Research and Technology Center will be a three-story facility at OU's Research campus. It will include space for 30 research groups working on projects ranging from alternative energy sources to new therapies for diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and cancer. The center is named for Charles and Peggy Stephenson of Tulsa who are providing $15 million to help build the facility. ...

 LA JOLLA, Calif., Nov. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has come up with a simple but comprehensive way of probing the parts of our biological machinery that controls protein folding, packaging, and export from our cells.        The team has created a new model integrating the chemistry and biology of protein folding, called folding for export (FoldEx), which provides a general framework for understanding the causes and potential treatment strategies of diseases that arise when this protein homeostasis machinery malfunctions. These diseases include type 2 diabetes, Gaucher's disease, cystic fibrosis, and Alzheimer's disease.       ...

 Scientists have created the world's first cloned monkey embryos and extracted stem cells from them, bringing the cloning of human embryos a step closer.  These could provide a ready source of human embryonic stem cells, which can be turned into any cell in the body and offer the hope of developing treatments for a range of diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes.  In addition to basic research to understand disease, human stem cells could be used to replace damaged tissue. The resulting tissue would be genetically identical to a patient's own tissue, so there would be little chance of rejection.  To make such...

 The Google Inc.-backed company 23andMe on Monday started a Web-based genetic testing service offering customers a $999 scan of their DNA, including hints about their disease risks, clues to their ethnic ancestry and possible explanations for habits that annoy their relatives. The private Mountain View startup, with funding from Internet colossus Google and nearby biotech powerhouse Genentech Inc., is part of a wave of companies that are starting to commercialize information about the human genome for the general public. DeCode Genetics of Iceland rolled out its $985 service, DeCodeme, on Friday, and Navigenics of Redwood Shores plans to offer a test...

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute have proposed a mechanism that provides an explanation for the remarkable precision of the genetic time bomb causing Huntington’s and other trinucleotide repeat diseases. Huntington’s disease is a genetic time bomb: Programmed in the genes, it appears at a predictable age in adulthood, causing a progressive decline in mental and neurological function and finally death. There is, to date, no cure.   Huntington’s and a number of diseases like it, collectively known as trinucleotide repeat diseases, are caused by an unusual genetic mutation: A three-letter piece of gene code is repeated over and over in one gene....

Study Evaluates Potential Disease Modifying Properties of COPREXA in Another Deadly CNS Disease in Which Copper Is Implicated Pipex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMEX: PP), a specialty pharmaceutical company developing innovative late-stage drug candidates for the treatment of neurologic and fibrotic diseases, announced that it has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Ann Arbor, MI to evaluate COPREXA (oral tetrathiomolybdate), its lead anti-copper drug candidate, in preclinical studies as a treatment for Huntington's Disease (HD), a life threatening and debilitating neurodegenerative disease. Steve H. Kanzer, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Pipex, said,...

 Shares of Neurobiological Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTII) are rising on news before the start of trading that the biotechnology firm has joined hands with Buck Institute for Age Research to develop a drug for the treatment of Huntington’s disease. Emeryville, Calif.-based Neurobiological Technologies and the Buck Institute, an independent research facility focused on aging and age-related disease, announced this morning that they have formed a partnership to work on a cure for Huntington’s disease, a fatal brain disorder. The research involves a naturally occurring protein called fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) that has been studied for its ability to protect nerve cells from degeneration. Scientists...