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Huntington\u2019s disease is an inherited brain disorder that gradually damages nerve cells and disrupts movement, thinking, and behavior.<\/p>\n
In the striatum, the brain region most affected, a toxic form of the huntingtin protein, an altered version that harms cells, moved between neurons through tiny physical bridges.<\/p>\n
Following that path, Srinivasa Subramaniam, Ph.D., at Florida Atlantic University (FAU<\/a>) connected those bridges to a specific partnership at the cell surface that made them possible.<\/p>\n Rhes, a protein active in that vulnerable region, paired with another protein called SLC4A7 to build the connections that carried the toxic huntingtin protein onward.<\/p>\n That link narrowed the discovery to a defined route and a specific protein pair, raising a deeper question about what else these hidden connections might be doing.<\/p>\n What the tubes do<\/p>\n Researchers call the structures tunneling nanotubes, thin membrane bridges that let cells pass material directly to one another.<\/p>\n Instead of releasing cargo into open space, one neuron can send protein<\/a> packages through the bridge and into a neighboring cell.<\/p>\n FAU researchers found that this route carried mutant huntingtin, the altered protein that damages nerve cells in Huntington\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n That direct transfer helps explain why damage does not stay isolated, even when only some cells first make the toxic protein.<\/p>\n Blocking SLC4A7 prevents bridges<\/p>\n When researchers blocked SLC4A7, either by altering the gene or using a drug, far fewer of these tiny bridges formed between brain cells.<\/p>\n With those connections reduced, much less of the toxic huntingtin protein moved into neighboring cells, showing the bridges were active pathways for damage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve known that neurons somehow pass toxic proteins to one another, but now we can see the machinery that makes that possible,\u201d said Subramaniam.<\/p>\n That shift turns a once-hidden process into something scientists can now target more directly with potential treatments.<\/p>\n Evidence in mice<\/p>\n The clearest proof came from mice that lacked SLC4A7, where the toxic protein spread far less through the brain.<\/p>\n In the striatum, a deep region that helps control movement, the harmful protein stayed closer to where it first appeared.<\/p>\n Other signals in the brain remained unchanged, which showed the effect was not due to weaker delivery or fewer surviving cells.<\/p>\n Keeping the damage contained in this region matters, because early symptoms of Huntington\u2019s disease<\/a> begin there and worsen over time.<\/p>\n SLC4A7 and chemical balance<\/p>\n SLC4A7 stood out because it helps control the chemical balance inside cells, especially how acidic or stable they are.<\/p>\n At the cell surface, Rhes changed that balance in a way that made it easier for the tiny bridges to form.<\/p>\n When SLC4A7 was blocked, that chemical change faded, even though the two proteins could still connect.<\/p>\n That difference suggests scientists may be able to slow the spread<\/a> of damage without fully breaking apart the proteins themselves.<\/p>\n Anchoring the culprit<\/p>\n Another clue came from how Rhes attaches to the cell surface, using a small chemical tag that holds it in place.<\/p>\n When researchers blocked that attachment, Rhes could no longer link up with SLC4A7, and the bridges mostly disappeared.<\/p>\n SLC4A7 itself stayed in position, showing the effect was specific to Rhes rather than disrupting the entire cell surface.<\/p>\n That finding sharpened the case against Rhes itself, placing its membrane attachment near the start of the harmful chain.<\/p>\n Why families care<\/p>\n For families living with Huntington\u2019s disease<\/a>, the appeal is obvious because no treatment stops the disease from worsening.<\/p>\n If one parent carries the gene, each child faces a 50 percent chance of inheriting it.<\/p>\n Symptoms usually start in adulthood, and many people die within 15 to 20 years after signs first appear.<\/p>\n A therapy that slows spread between cells would not erase the cause, but it could buy precious time.<\/p>\n Beyond one disorder<\/p>\n Similar cell-to-cell br<\/a>i<\/a>dges<\/a> have also appeared in studies of tau disorders and several forms of cancer.<\/p>\n Other experiments have linked these structures to the movement of misfolded proteins, survival signals, and drug resistance.<\/p>\n That broader pattern suggests this Huntington\u2019s pathway may belong to a larger biology of disease spread, not an isolated quirk.<\/p>\n Any future drug would still need careful tuning, because healthy cells sometimes use these contacts during stress or repair.<\/p>\n Therapy and caution<\/p>\n The work points to a drug target, but it does not yet prove that blocking this pathway will help people.<\/p>\n \u201cBy identifying SLC4A7 as a key partner of Rhes, we\u2019ve uncovered a new and potentially druggable target to stop that spread at its source,\u201d said Subramaniam.<\/p>\n Even so, SLC4A7 works in many tissues, which means any treatment must avoid disrupting normal chemistry elsewhere.<\/p>\n Researchers now need compounds that reach the brain safely and show the same effect in longer, harder tests.<\/p>\n What changes now<\/p>\n FAU researchers have pinned Huntington\u2019s spread to a physical route between neurons and a specific protein pair.<\/p>\n Closing that route will take years of work, yet the study finally shows where intervention can start.The study is published in Science Advances<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have identified a previously unknown route by which Huntington\u2019s disease spreads from one brain cell to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-370589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}