scholarly journals Social Cognition and Oxytocin in Huntington’s Disease: New Insights

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Unti ◽  
Sonia Mazzucchi ◽  
Daniela Frosini ◽  
Cristina Pagni ◽  
Gloria Tognoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Plasma Levels ◽  
Neuropsychological Tests ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Verbal Stimuli ◽  
Body Tissues ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Examination

This study is aimed at relating social cognition in Huntington’s Disease (HD) to plasma levels of the social hormone oxytocin (OT). Indeed, HD patients commonly display reduced social skills and OT is involved in bonding behavior and improved recognition of facial emotions. Twelve mild-symptomatic HD patients (stage II Shoulson & Fahn) and 11 gender/age matched controls (healthy controls, HC), without concurrent psychiatric disorders, were investigated at baseline (T0) for OT plasma levels and social cognition through an extensive battery of neuropsychological tests. Social cognition was also re-examined after two years (T1) in 8 of the 12 patients. Results showed a trend for reduced T0-OT levels in HD vs. HC, mean ± stardard deviation: 6.5 ± 2.4 vs. 9.9 ± 7.2 pg/mL, without reaching statistical significance. At T0, patients showed significantly lower performances than controls at the “Faux-Pas” and “Strange Stories” tests (p < 0.05; p < 0.01); a reduced perception of visual emotions (p < 0.01) and verbal stimuli (p < 0.01) was also reported, involving anger, fear, and sadness (p < 0.05; p < 0.01). Additionally, in the HD population, OT concentrations positively correlated with T1-performances at Neutral\Faux-Pas test (p < 0.05), whereas the cognitive Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores positively correlated with psychosocial perception at the “Strange Stories” and Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF) tests (p < 0.05). This study, despite its limitations, supports correlations between OT and HD social cognition, suggesting a possible therapeutic use of this hormone. More subjects and additional body tissues/fluids, such as cerebrospinal fluid, should be investigated to confirm this hypothesis.

D5 Oxytocin plasma levels as predictor of social cognition in huntington’s disease

2016 ◽  
Vol 87 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. A35.2-A35
Author(s):  
Elisa Unti ◽  
Sonia Mazzucchi ◽  
Giovanni Palermo ◽  
Lionella Palego ◽  
Gino Giannaccini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Plasma Levels

scholarly journals Co-Design of Social Impact Domains with the Huntington’s Disease Community

Disabilities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-131
Author(s):  
Natasha Layton ◽  
Natasha Brusco ◽  
Tammy Gardner ◽  
Libby Callaway
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
The Social

Background: For people living with or affected by Huntington’s Disease (HD) to experience a good quality of life, tailored support is required to meet physical, cognitive-behavioral, psychological, and social support needs. Substantial service and knowledge gaps regarding HD exist across support providers and service systems. Measuring unmet needs and what quality of life looks like is a fundamental step required to determine the social impact of service investment and provision. The objectives of this study were to validate and map a draft set of HD Social Impact Domains (HD-SID) against existing national and international outcome frameworks; and evaluate and finalize the HD-SID set using a co-design approach with people with lived experience of, and expertise in, HD. Methods: This research used a qualitative co-design process, with 39 participants across four stakeholder groups (people who were HD gene-positive, gene-negative family members, academics, peak organizations, and service providers) to: (i) map and verify the social life areas impacted by HD; (ii) undertake a rigorous three-phased, qualitative process to critically evaluate the draft HD-SID; and (iii) seek feedback on and endorsement of the HD-SID through this co-design process, with a final set of HD-SID identified. Results: Endorsed HD-SID comprised risks and safety (including housing stability, and economic sustainability) and social inclusion (including health and symptom management, physical wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, and building resilient relationships). Conclusions: Effective measurement of the impacts and outcomes for people with HD is informed by both extant measures and an understanding of the specific population needs. This qualitative co-design research demonstrates that HD-SID resonate with the HD community.

Disease stage and plasma levels of cytokines in Huntington's disease: A 2-year follow-up study

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 1103-1104 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.A. Bouwens ◽  
E. van Duijn ◽  
C.M. Cobbaert ◽  
R.A.C. Roos ◽  
R.C. van der Mast ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Plasma Levels ◽  
Disease Stage ◽  
Follow Up Study

scholarly journals Pridopidine for the Improvement of Motor Function in Patients With Huntington's Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shujun Chen ◽  
Tianyu Liang ◽  
Tao Xue ◽  
Shouru Xue ◽  
Qun Xue
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Events ◽  
Randomized Controlled Trials ◽  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Efficacy And Safety ◽  
Motor Score ◽  
Randomized Controlled

Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Generally, it is characterized by deficits in cognition, behavior, and movement. Recent studies have shown that pridopidine is a potential and effective drug candidate for the treatment of HD. In the present study, we performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of pridopidine in HD.Methods: The MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, and Clinicaltrials.gov databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which had that evaluated pridopidine therapy in HD patients.Results: We pooled data from 1,119 patients across four RCTs. Patients in the pridopidine group had a significantly lower Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS)-modified Motor Score (mMS) (MD −0.79, 95% CI = −1.46 to −0.11, p = 0.02) than those in the placebo group. Additionally, no differences were observed in the UHDRS-Total Motor Score (TMS) (MD −0.91. 95% CI = −2.03 to 0.21, p = 0.11) or adverse events (RR 1.06, 95% CI = 0.96 to 1.16, p = 0.24) in the pridopidine and placebo groups. In the subgroup analysis, the short-term (≤12 weeks) and long-term (&gt;12 weeks) subgroups exhibited similar efficacy and safety with no statistical significance in TMS, mMS, or adverse events. However, TMS (MD −1.50, 95% CI = −2.87 to −0.12, p = 0.03) and mMS (MD −1.03, 95% CI = −1.87 to −0.19, p = 0.02) were observed to be improved significantly when the dosage of pridopidine ≥90 mg/day. Additionally, pridopidine (≥90 mg/day) increased total adverse events (RR 1.11, 95% CI = 1.00 to 1.22, p = 0.04) compared with placebo. On this basis, we analyzed the incidence of various adverse events when the dosage was ≥90 mg/day. Nonetheless, these results were within the acceptable threshold, although patients developed symptoms, such as nasopharyngitis and insomnia.Conclusion: Pridopidine improved mMS and had no statistical significance in association with TMS or adverse events. Pridopidine (≥90 mg/day) improved TMS and mMS but increased adverse events, such as nasopharyngitis and insomnia. More RCTs were expected to assess pridopidine in HD.

scholarly journals Mutant Huntingtin Affects Diabetes and Alzheimer’s Markers in Human and Cell Models of Huntington’s Disease

Cells ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gepoliano Chaves ◽  
John Stanley ◽  
Nader Pourmand
Keyword(s):  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Genome Wide Association Study ◽  
Cell Model ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Mutant Huntingtin ◽  
Rna Seq ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Reliable Model

A higher incidence of diabetes was observed among family members of individuals affected by Huntington’s Disease with no follow-up studies investigating the genetic nature of the observation. Using a genome-wide association study (GWAS), RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis and western blotting of Rattus norvegicus and human, we were able to identify that the gene family of sortilin receptors was affected in Huntington’s Disease patients. We observed that less than 5% of SNPs were of statistical significance and that sortilins and HLA/MHC gene expression or SNPs were associated with mutant huntingtin (mHTT). These results suggest that ST14A cells derived from R. norvegicus are a reliable model of HD, since sortilins were identified through analysis of the transcriptome in these cells. These findings help highlight the genes involved in mechanisms targeted by diabetes drugs, such as glucose transporters as well as proteins controlling insulin release related to mHTT. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first GWAS using RNA-Seq data from both ST14A rat HD cell model and human Huntington’s Disease.

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