Advanced MRI technique may reveal cellular damage in Huntington's disease
Researchers have used a specialized diffusion MRI method called Sandi to estimate cell body density in the brains of living Huntington's patients. The technique detected abnormalities matching those seen in postmortem tissue, potentially offering a way to monitor disease progression and treatment efficacy. The study analyzed scans from 56 people with the condition and 57 healthy controls.
Huntington's disease, an inherited disorder with no cure, typically emerges between ages 30 and 50 and impairs movement and cognition. The Sandi technique uses diffusion MRI to track water movement, allowing researchers to indirectly gauge cell body size and density within brain tissue.
In a comparison of 56 patients and 57 healthy controls, the scans showed lower cell density and greater intercellular space in the basal ganglia of patients, matching postmortem findings. These measurements also aligned with disease severity and finger-tapping performance, suggesting the method could track progression.
This technique could offer a crucial non-invasive biomarker for Huntington's patients and their families, potentially enabling earlier tracking of cellular damage before gross tissue loss occurs. Researchers may use it to gauge the effectiveness of emerging gene and cell therapies in clinical trials, accelerating the path to viable treatments. Clinicians might also gain a tool to monitor disease progression more precisely, though it remains a research tool rather than a diagnostic cure.