Highlighting advances in the discovery and development of new drug therapies for neurodegenerative disorders, "The Neurobiology of Huntington's Disease" focuses on the many aspects of the research on drugs to treat Huntington's disease. It discusses genetics, genomics, and proteomics, and the latest in high-throughput and high-content screening. The authors provide introductory background as well as highly sophisticated information on current and future directions of research. Exploring the interplay between academic and industrial research, the investment community, and non-profit contributors, the book also examines the practical realities of preclinical testing, clinical testing strategies, and, ultimately, clinical usage.

Table of Contents

Huntington's Disease: Clinical Features and Routes to Therapy, Henry L. Paulson and Roger L. Albin Huntington's Disease Pathogenesis: Mechanisms and Pathways, Albert R. La Spada, Patrick Weydt, and Victor V. Pineda Protein Interactions and Target Discovery in Huntington's Disease, John P. Miller and Robert E. Hughes Target Validation for Huntington's Disease, Seung P. Kwak, James K. T. Wang, and David S. Howland High-Throughput and High-Content Screening for Huntington's Disease Therapeutics, Hemant Varma, Donald C. Lo, and Brent R. Stockwell Value of Invertebrate Genetics and Biology to Develop Neuroprotective and Preventive Medicine in Huntington's Disease, Christian Neri Mouse Models for Validating Preclinical Candidates for Huntington's Disease, X. William Yang and Michelle Gray Pharmaceutical Development for Huntington's Disease, Richard J. Morse, Janet M. Leeds, Douglas Macdonald, Larry Park, Leticia Toledo-Sherman, and Robert Pacifici RNA- and DNA-Based Therapies for Huntington's Disease, Meghan Sass and Neil Aronin Recombinant Intrabodies as Molecular Tools and Potential Therapeutics for Huntington's Disease, Ali Khoshnan, Amber Southwell, Charles W. Bugg, Jan C. Ko, and Paul H. Patterson Biomarkers to Enable the Development of Neuroprotective Therapies for Huntington's Disease, Steven M. Hersch and H. Diana Rosas Huntington's Disease, E. Ray Dorsey and Ira Shoulson

About the Author

Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, California, USA

Reviews

The book is written lucidly by authorities in their respective fields, covering clinical features, pathogenic mechanisms, protein interactions, preclinical models, biomarkers, small molecules and other approaches (eg, recombinant antibodies), screening strategies, and drug development. Informative figures and tables are provided, and reproduction of key figures as a set of colour plates provides a useful centrepiece. One unifying message is that the polyglutamine xpansion leads to a complex cascade of diverse molecular and cellular events, the progress of which is difficult to slow or halt. Innovative approaches described, such as the target validation process of the Cure Huntington's Disease Initiative (CHDI) Foundation, will be of interest to those studying other neurological diseases. --Anthony J Hannan, writing in The Lancet Neurology, March 2011