A systems-level "misunderstanding": the plasma metabolome in Huntington's disease.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Huntington's disease (HD) is a rare neurodegenerative disease caused by the expansion of an N-terminal repeat in the huntingtin protein. The protein is expressed in all cells in the body; hence, peripheral tissues, such as blood, may recapitulate processes in the brain. The plasma metabolome may provide a window into active processes that influence brain health and a unique opportunity to noninvasively identify processes that may contribute to neurodegeneration. Alterations in metabolic pathways in brain have been shown to profoundly impact HD. Therefore, identification and quantification of critical metabolomic perturbations could provide novel biomarkers for disease onset and disease progression.

Methods

We analyzed the plasma metabolomic profiles from 52 premani

SUBMITTER: Rosas HD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4531058 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature