Targeting glutamate mediated excitotoxicity in huntington’s disease: Neural progenitors and partial glutamate antagonist – Memantine

Summary Huntington’s disease (HD) is a fatal progressive neurodegenerative disorder with autosomal dominant inheritance. In humans mutated huntingtin (htt) induces a preferential loss of medium spiny neurons (MSN) of the striatum and causes motor, cognitive and emotional deficits. One of the propose...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical hypotheses 2011-01, Vol.76 (1), p.138-140
Main Authors: Anitha, M, Nandhu, M.S, Anju, T.R, Jes, P, Paulose, C.S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists - pharmacology
Humans
Huntington Disease - metabolism
Internal Medicine
Memantine - pharmacology
Receptors, Glutamate - drug effects
Stem Cells - drug effects
Stem Cells - metabolism
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Summary:Summary Huntington’s disease (HD) is a fatal progressive neurodegenerative disorder with autosomal dominant inheritance. In humans mutated huntingtin (htt) induces a preferential loss of medium spiny neurons (MSN) of the striatum and causes motor, cognitive and emotional deficits. One of the proposed cellular mechanism underlying medium spiny neurons degeneration is excitotoxic pathways mediated by glutamate receptors. The hypothesis proposed is restoration of medium spiny neurons in Huntington’s disease using neural progenitor cell implantation and attenuation of glutamate mediated excitotoxicity using a partial glutamate antagonist – Memantine. Memantine can block the NMDA receptors and will prevent excess calcium influx into the neurons decreases the vulnerability of medium spiny neurons to glutamate mediated excitotoxicity. Neural progenitor cell implantation can enhance endogenous neurogenesis process replacing the degenerated medium spiny neurons in the striatum. This has immense significance in the management of Huntington’s disease.
ISSN:0306-9877
1532-2777
DOI:10.1016/j.mehy.2010.09.003