A team of Japanese researchers has discovered new clues to how some neurodegenerative diseases occur, possibly paving the way for effective treatment of nervous disorders such as Huntington's disease and spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy.
The scientists found that, in at least eight serious hereditary neurodegenerative illnesses, a substance produced by genetic parts common to causal genes enters the nuclei of nerve cells in the brain and suppresses their functions.
They have also recovered the function of the nerve cells in in vitro experiments, according to a report of their findings, to be published in the September issue of the U.S. medical magazine Nature Genetics due out Monday.
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