Biological psychiatry
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Biological psychiatry · Mar 2018
Brain Regions Showing White Matter Loss in Huntington's Disease Are Enriched for Synaptic and Metabolic Genes.
The earliest white matter changes in Huntington's disease are seen before disease onset in the premanifest stage around the striatum, within the corpus callosum, and in posterior white matter tracts. While experimental evidence suggests that these changes may be related to abnormal gene transcription, we lack an understanding of the biological processes driving this regional vulnerability. ⋯ These findings suggest a dual mechanism of white matter vulnerability in Huntington's disease, in which abnormal transcription of synaptic genes and metabolic disturbance not related to transcription may drive white matter loss.