Fatal brain disease holds clues t...( towards developing drugs to treat demen...),Health

Dr Hannan's team trained normal and Huntington's disease-susceptible mice to perform a complex touch-dependent learning task. The healthy mice could improve on their performance and learn the task, but the mice with Huntington's disease could not, proving they had learning and memory problems.

In a second study, both mouse groups had most of their whiskers trimmed on one side. After the intact whiskers were stimulated, the touch and sensation brain region increased in area in the normal mice, but not the Huntington's disease mice. This showed that the Huntington's diseased brain had lost its ability to change wiring patterns and suggests that the neurons were unable to reorganise themselves and strengthen their nerve connections. Humans with Huntington's disease also have problems with touch perception.

While more research is needed, Dr Hannan noted that Alzheimer's disease patients may also have defective nerve connections in the brain similar to Huntington's disease. If this is true, it might be possible to develop anti-dementia drugs that enhance information processing for both disorders.

Dr Anthony Hannan and his team collaborated with researchers from Oxford University and Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in Poland on the project. Their findings were reported in the March 23 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience.

The Howard Florey Institute is Australia's leading brain research centre. Its scientists undertake clinical and applied research that can be developed into treatments to combat brain disorders, and into new medical practices. Their discoveries will improve the lives of those directly, and indirectly, affected by brain and mind disorders in Australia, and around the world. The Florey's research areas cover a variety of brain and mind disorders including Parkinson's disease, stroke, motor neuron disease, addiction, e
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Contact: Merrin Rafferty
m.rafferty@hfi.unimelb.edu.au
61-38-344-1658
Research Australia
26-Apr-2005