Background+Information

History of Huntington's-

Huntington's disease was first widely described by an American scientists named George Huntington in 1872. However, George Huntington was not the first to notice or discover the disease. Huntington could be traced back to the Middle ages. During the middle ages, people with Huntington were called people possessed by ghosts or the devil. Now, because of modern day research, we know that this is definitely not true. The disorder wasn't always called Huntington. In the past, Huntington's disease was called Chorea, which is Greek for "dance". After George released his information and books, other scientists became interested and public awareness of the disorder arose.

Huntington's Disease, also known as Chorea or HD, is a neurological genetic disorder. The disorder is an autosomal dominant disorder. Huntington's is passed down from parent to offspring. Offspring have a 50% chance of inheriting the disorder. Huntington's is located on the fourth autosomal chromosome on the short arm. Because Huntington's is not located on a sex chromosome, both male and females can inherit the disorder. Huntington's disease is caused when a mutation occurs on the Huntingtin gene. The Huntingtin gene codes for the protein which is also named Huntingtin. The Huntingtin gene was first discovered in 1993. This was good because scientists found the original source of the Huntingtin gene. Scientists were now aware that this gene came from DNA.

DNA consists of a serious of nucleotides. Nucleotides can contain Adenine (A) Guanine (G) Thymine (T) or Cytosine (C). The sequence CAG ( Cytosine Adenine and Guanine) play a huge role in Huntington's Disorder. Patients with Huntington's have the CAG sequence repeated many times. Patients with Huntington's can have the CAG sequence replicated up to 100 times. The symptoms of Huntington's Disease does not show until later years of adulthood of around 30 years of age. Over 30,000 people in America contain the Huntington's disorder and another 150,000 have a possible risk of obtaining the disorder.