Grant: Project Grant

Huntington's disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder that is fatal and has no cure. The prevalence of this disease in Canada is estimated at 13.7 per 100,000, thus the need to understand the biological basis of the disease for the development of therapeutic treatments and a cure is of paramount importance. Huntington's disease is primarily characterized by progressive motor incoordination and involuntary movements that result from neurodegeneration of a region of the brain called the striatum. However, cognitive and behavioural impairments involving other regions of the brain, including the cortex and hippocampus, emerge in the early stages of the disease and precede the motor impairments by ~15 years, producing a significant burden on caregivers. The overall objective of the proposed work is to understand the biological basis of the cognitive and behavioural impairments in the hippocampus, in particular those related to learning and memory. Our goal is to identify molecular targets that can be exploited therapeutically to (i) slow disease onset, and (ii) reduced cognitive dysfunction that will both improve patient quality of life and reduce caregiver burden.