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Huntington’s Disease. Austin Bollinger Delaney Lawson. Description:. Genetic Defect on Chromosome 4. Causes CAG in the DNA to repeat many times. On Normal DNA its repeated 10-28 times. With this disease it repeats 36-120 times.
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Huntington’s Disease Austin Bollinger Delaney Lawson
Description: • Genetic Defect on Chromosome 4. • Causes CAG in the DNA to repeat many times. • On Normal DNA its repeated 10-28 times. • With this disease it repeats 36-120 times. • If parent’s have this disease, the child has a 50% chance of having it as well.
Symptoms • Behavioral Changes: • Hallucinations • Irritability • Moodiness • Paranoia • Psychosis • Abnormal And Unusual movements: • Facial movements • Head turning to shift eye position • Quick, sudden, sometimes wild jerking movements of the arms, legs, face, etc. • Slow, uncontrolled movements • Unsteady gait • Dementia that slowly gets worse: • Disorientation or confusion • Loss of judgment • Loss of memory • Personality changes • Speech changes
Effects on Brain and Nervous System • Mainly affects brain and spinal cord • Causes abnormal brain cells found deep in the brain that control movement • The HD gene somehow prevents brain cells from protecting themselves against poisons called oxidants • Worsened by falls in the amounts of neurotransmitters
How it is obtained? • Hereditary • If parent has the disease the child has a 50% chance of having it.
Treatment • There is no cure…
Celebrities with Huntington’s • Woody Guthrie
Huntington’s as seen on TV • Scrubs • House • Planet of the Apes (New one)
Random facts • Leads to: • Depression • Injury to self or others • Increased risk of infection • Loss of ability to interact or care for self • Death • Within 15-20 years of first symptoms • Usually caused by infection or suicide
Bibliography • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001775/ • http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/huntingtons.htm • http://digitaljournal.com/article/287977