Amino acid deficiency leads to brain degeneration in Huntington's disease

Working with genetically engineered mice, Johns Hopkins neuroscientists report they have identified what they believe is the cause of the vast disintegration of a part of the brain called the corpus striatum in rodents and people with Huntington's disease: loss of the ability to make the amino acid cysteine. They also found that disease progression slowed in mice that were fed a diet rich in cysteine, which is found in foods such as wheat germ and whey protein.Their results suggest further investigation into cysteine supplementation as a candidate therapeutic in people with the disease.



from Health News from Medical News Today http://ift.tt/1h2cc85