Leap Forward In Efforts To Develop Treatments For Huntington's Disease, Buck Institute for Age Research Study

Medical News Today -- Scientists at the Buck Institute for Age Research have discovered that a particular family of enzymes are involved in the breakdown of proteins that modify the production of toxic fragments that lead to the pathology of Huntington's disease. These enzymes, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), provide new targets for drug therapies for the disease - targets that have already been shown to respond to cancer drugs currently in clinical development. Results of the research, from the laboratories of Buck faculty members Lisa Ellerby, Ph.D. and Robert Hughes, Ph.D., appear as the cover story in the July 29, 2010 edition of Neuron.