WASHINGTON — Scientists have uncovered a clue about why it takes so long for Huntington’s disease to develop. And they may have a lead on how to stop the fatal brain disease.
Huntington’s is caused by a mistakenly repeated bit of a gene called HTT. Until recently, researchers thought the number of repeats a person is born with doesn’t change, though repeats may expand when passed to future generations.
But in some brain cells, the repeats can grow over time to hundreds of copies, geneticist Bob Handsaker reported November 2 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. Once the number of repeats passes a certain
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