12 Dec 2017

Breakthrough in fight against Huntington's

From Afternoons, 1:16 pm on 12 December 2017

It's been called a massive breakthrough in the battle against the progressive brain disease Huntington's.

A research team from University College London has found a drug which corrects the mutation and hope to begin clinical trials next year.

This comes as a team of Auckland researchers believe they have found one of the  changes in the brain that results in Huntington's Disease, which usually starts in people aged in their 30s and 40s.

Wellington film editor Bridget Lyon was just 21 when she found out her mother had the gene for Huntington's Disease and that it had been passed down to her and her siblings.

She gives Jesse her reaction to the news of the recent breakthroughs.

In 2013 Bridget Lyon made the documentary The Inheritance about the toll this disease has had on three generations of her family. Watch the trailer below: