Antioxidants may delay Huntington Disease Progression

Huntington disease is caused by degeneration of the brain mainly at the striatum and, when the disease progresses, at the cortex. One of the degradation processes is caused by oxidative stress in which the human body, on the other hand, has antioxidative enzymes reponsible for healing the damaged site of the brain. A group of scientists at the Spain Institute of Neuropathology have studied proteomic analysis of postmortem specimens of patients died from HD and patients died from non-HD related causes. They suggest in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, September 2008 issue, that using antioxidants and avoiding oxidative stress would delay progression of Huntington disease.