Huntington's disease Health Article

Definition

Huntington's disease is a disorder passed down through families in which certain nerve cells in the brain waste away, or degenerate.

Alternative Names

Huntington chorea

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

American doctor George Huntington first described the disorder in 1872.

Huntington's disease is caused by a genetic defect on chromosome #4. The defect causes a part of DNA, called a CAG repeat, to occur many more times than it is supposed to. Normally, this section of DNA is repeated 10 to 35 times. But in persons with Huntington's disease, it is repeated 36 to 120 times.

As the gene is passed on from one generation to the next, the number of repeats - called a CAG repeat expansion - tend to get larger. The larger the number of repeats, the greater your chance of developing symptoms at an earlier age. Therefore, as the disease is passed along in families, it becomes evident at younger and younger ages.

There are two forms of Huntington's disease. The most common is adult-onset Huntington's disease. Persons with this form usually develop symptoms in their mid 30s and 40s.

An early-onset form of Huntington's disease accounts for a small number of cases and begins in childhood or adolescence. Symptoms may resemble those of Parkinson's disease with rigidity, slow movements, and tremor.

If one of your parents has Huntington's disease, you have a 50% chance of getting the gene for the disease. If you get the gene from your parents, you will develop the disease at some point in your life, and can pass it onto your children. If you do not get the gene from your parents, you cannot pass the gene onto your children.