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

Samuel

Supposedly, HD is supposed to skip every other generation, or so I've been informed, (Parent has it-skips the child-child's child has it-their child will not, and so on.) Yet this seems to not be the case with my family, and for this reason I am very scared. My grandmother had it, yet it did not skip her children, as my mother had it, as well as her brother, and we believe her sister (my aunt) now has it. Does this mean I will have it as well? If my grandmother had it, shouldn't it have skipped my mother and her siblings and came to me? Or is this some abnormal occurence? Since my mother had it, will it skip me? I am afraid.14 months ago

Steve

Although there is always a chance of a statistical anomoly, HD does not skip a generation. The CAG count is an indicator of the disease and nearly always a child that inherits the disease from the mother will inherit approximately the same CAG count. If the child inherits the disease from the father then there is a significant chance that the CAG will expand. Only rarely does the CAG count reduce.

However a child of an HD positive parent only has a 50% chance of inheriting the disease! The comments in the previous paragraph regarding CAG counts assume that the child inherits the disease - which is not automatic.

The children of a person that does NOT inherit the disease and has a CAG count that is below "the gray zone" will also be HD free.

I should also note that there is a LOT of great research going on that will result in treatments that delay onset. I'm very hopeful that a treatment will be available within the next few years.

14 months ago

skmf

its complicated, and steve is very smart about all the technical part of the disease. sometimes for those of us that havent alot of experience with all the medical terminology, dont understand what it all means. maybe someone could do a simple terminology page, to describe different medical terms to make it easier to understand the basics of hd... but listen samuel, you have every right to be scared, cause all illness, no matter which one it is, is very scarry. BUT... like steve says, we are living at a at a time when we are on the verge of some really great medical breakthroughs... we need drugs samuel, drugs that will treat the symptoms and help us prolong life, while science can figure out the real cure.... and we are close for alot of different medicines, we really are. so keep your head up, and dont freak out, we are going to be okay...:-)14 months ago

Marsha

HD does not skip a generation. The HD gene is a dominant one so if you inherited the gene from your mother, you will eventually get the disease unless treatments become available. You have a 50 percent chance of having inherited the normal gene. Try to hold on to hope! The pace of research has really picked up in the last few years with a number of potential treatments heading into clinical trials.14 months ago

Ratnakar

As Marsha has said, HD is an autosomal dominant disease -

An affected parent passes either the HD gene, or the other working gene, to their off spring. There is a 50% (1 in 2) chance at each pregnancy that a child of an affected parent will receive the gene for Huntington disease.Autosomal dominant pattern means one copy of the altered gene in each cell is sufficient to cause the disorder.

As the altered HD gene is passed from one generation to the next, the size of the CAG repeat expansion often increases in size. Larger repeat expansions are usually associated with an earlier onset of signs and symptoms. This phenomenon is called anticipation.

Tremendous progress, however, has been made in significantly broadening the understanding of pathogenic mechanisms in this neurological disorder that may eventually lead to successful treatment strategies. There have been many encouraging reports of preclinical efficacy in transgenic Huntington's disease mice, from which a number have been extended to human clinical trials with some success.

13 months ago