Closing on to the answer to the cause and cure of Huntington's

The use of fruit flies are helping scientists and doctors to slowly uncover the secrets revolving around huntington's disease (the cure and cause of it). They have been testing fruit fly genes too see whether there were any formation of plaque-like protein aggregates within their cells. They have discovered a small group of genes (more than 70% same for humans) which play a role in regulating the formation of these aggregates. Also they discovered that these aggregates formed in different tissues, such as those in the brain and cells. These were similar to those formed in humans.

Thus, fruit flies have allowed for scientists to find the genes which control the formation of plaque-like protein aggregates. Thus this is allowing scientists to move closer towards finding the answer to how the formations are regulated which will lead to the formation of a drug to prevent and treat these diseases. Overall proving that the fly genome is a significant factor in current and possible future discoveries, such as those of medicine for brain disease


Weblink:
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/05/21/scientists.make.important.step.toward.stopping.plaque.formations.huntingtons.disease

Paul Kim (42344281)