Common heart drug may slow progression of Huntington's disease

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-12-16 05:35:22 | Updated at 2024-12-16 07:33:17 2 hours ago

Common heart drug may slow progression of Huntington's disease
Medical Xpress / University of Iowa / JAMA Neurology ^ | Dec. 2, 2024 | Jordan L. Schultz et al

Posted on 12/15/2024 9:32:03 PM PST by ConservativeMind

A common heart drug may slow the progression of Huntington's disease (HD), according to a study.

The UI team found that the use of beta-blocker drugs—commonly used to treat heart and blood pressure issues—was associated with both a significantly later onset of HD symptoms for people in the pre-symptomatic stages, and a slower rate of symptom worsening for those with symptoms.

Beta-blockers work by blocking the action of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter and hormone involved in the "fight or flight" response.

"Patients with HD have a slightly more active sympathetic nervous system, which is what drives the fight or flight response, and theoretically have more norepinephrine," Schultz explains.

"We have hypothesized that this subtle change may be contributing to the neurodegeneration that occurs in HD"

To investigate the potential effect of beta-blocker use, the UI researcher used data from the world's largest observational study for Huntington's disease families known as Enroll-HD. This database follows more than 21,000 patients with either an HD diagnosis or at risk for HD over their lifetime.

The UI researchers identified two distinct groups of HD patients; those with the genetic mutation that causes HD but who have not yet started showing significant clinical symptoms (preHD group), and patients who have already received a clinical diagnosis of HD, referred to as motor-manifest patients (mmHD group). Within each group, they identified patients who were taking a beta-blocker for at least one year.

Next, the team matched 174 preHD and 149 mmHD beta-blocker users to the same number of similar non-beta-blocker users.

The team's analysis showed that preHD beta-blocker users had a significantly lower yearly risk of receiving a clinical diagnosis of HD.

Among the mmHD group, the researchers showed that the patients taking beta-blockers had significant slowing of the gradual worsening.

(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...

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There are no other disease modifying treatments, except for this, according to the researchers involved.

Beta blockers are a common blood pressure medicine.

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2 posted on 12/15/2024 9:32:41 PM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)

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