Dr Horrobin explained that a 7 year collaboration between Laxdale inc. Monash University Melbourne, Hammersmith Hospital London and Trinity College Dublin had led to hope of a new treatment for Huntington's Disease. He stressed that the treatment was still in it's early stages and could not be regarded as proven. The following is taken from our notes of his talk and his overhead projector slides. In HD protein accumulates in nerve cells over a long period of time.
Nothing happens until the protein reaches critical levels and the nerve cells stop functioning.
A similar inflammatory process takes place with similar enzymes being overactive. Phospholipase A2, Cox-2 and Caspace 1 for example. How central each one is to the pathology of the disease is not yet clear. The tests were performed on transgenic mice. Dr Marina Lynch showed that it was a powerful inhibitor of Caspace 1 in lab animals.