File talk:Autosomal dominant inheritance.jpg

From Embryology

Huntington’s Disease

(HD, Huntington Chorea)

  • George Huntington in 1872 wrote a paper called "On Chorea". Latin, chorea = chorus or a group of dances
  • polyglutamine trinucleotide repeat expansion disease
  • chromosome 4p16.3
  • protein called huntingtin
  • Cytosine Adenine Guanine (CAG) repeats in the first exon (1993 first genetic test)
    • up to 28 repeats - normal range
    • 29-34 repeats - individual will not develop HD, next generation at risk
    • 40 or more repeats - individual will develop HD
  • repeat enlargement occurs during spermatogenesis
  • reduced brain mass
    • basal ganglia atrophy (caudate nucleus, putamen, internal and external regions of the globus pallidus (GPi and GPe)
      • loss of striatal neurons within the caudate nucleus and putamen
    • atrophy of frontal and parietal lobe
Links: OMIM 143100


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