Onset of dementia in Huntington’s disease can be delayed

Scientists at Melbourne’s Howard Florey Institute have discovered that mental and physical stimulation delays the onset of dementia in the fatal genetic disease, Huntington’s disease.

This Australian research opens up new therapeutic possibilities for other devastating and difficult to treat brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease where dementia is a key component.

The Florey’s Dr Jess Nithianantharajah and Dr Anthony Hannan showed mice with the Huntington’s disease gene displayed impairments on learning and memory tests at an early stage of the disease, prior to the obvious signs of movement problems. This closely correlates with observations in Huntington’s disease patients.

However, Dr Jess Nithianantharajah said by providing the mice with an enriched environment that enhanced their mental and physical stimulation, the mice performed better on these memory tests.

“This discovery is quite remarkable because we have shown that an enriched environment not only delayed the onset of dementia, but it also slowed the progression of memory loss in these mice,” Dr Jess Nithianantharajah said.

This research was recently published in the international Journal of Neurobiology of Disease and involved collaborations between the Howard Florey Institute and the University of Melbourne.