{"id":3013,"date":"2021-12-08T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fusfoundation.org\/?post_type=sw_disease_condition&#038;p=3013"},"modified":"2025-09-22T10:43:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T14:43:59","slug":"huntingtons-disease","status":"publish","type":"sw_disease_condition","link":"https:\/\/www.fusfoundation.org\/diseases-and-conditions\/huntingtons-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Huntington&#8217;s Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-focused-ultrasound-therapy\">Focused Ultrasound Therapy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Focused ultrasound is a noninvasive, therapeutic technology with the potential to improve the quality of life and decrease the cost of care for patients with Huntington\u2019s disease. This novel technology focuses beams of ultrasound energy precisely and accurately on targets deep in the brain without damaging surrounding normal tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How it Works<br><\/strong>Where the beams converge, focused ultrasound produces several types of actions which may be helpful in the treatment of Huntington\u2019s disease. One option is precise ablation (thermal destruction of tissue). A second is temporary opening of the blood-brain barrier, which may allow therapeutic agents to access the brain.<br><br><strong>Advantages<\/strong><br>For certain patients, focused ultrasound could provide a noninvasive alternative to medications that would enable symptom relief without the medication-induced side effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Focused ultrasound is noninvasive, so it does not carry added concerns like surgical wound healing or infection.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Focused ultrasound can reach the desired target without damaging surrounding tissue.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It can be repeated, if necessary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-clinical-trials\">Clinical Trials<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At the present time, there are no clinical trials recruiting patients for focused ultrasound treatment of Huntington\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Foundation updates these pages regularly, but with the increasing number of clinical trials, we want to be sure that our audience has the latest information available. Therefore, we also added the website search information for the above trials. If you click <a href=\"https:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/search?cond=Huntington%20Disease&amp;term=focused%20ultrasound&amp;aggFilters=status:not%20rec\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>, it will take you to the latest information available from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clinicaltrials.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>https:\/\/www.clinicaltrials.gov\/<\/strong><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-regulatory-approval-and-reimbursement\">Regulatory Approval and Reimbursement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Focused ultrasound treatment for Huntington\u2019s disease is not yet approved by regulatory bodies or covered by medical insurance companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-preclinical-laboratory-studies\">Preclinical Laboratory Studies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Preclinical studies are investigating focused ultrasound\u2019s potential to treat the underlying genetic cause of Huntington\u2019s. Focused ultrasound can temporarily open the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to improve the delivery of genes, stem cells, or other neuroprotective and\/or neurorestorative drugs that could potentially be important in treating Huntington\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-notable-papers\">Notable Papers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Suggested Reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/fusf.sharepoint.com\/sites\/FUSF-Development\/Shared%20Documents\/Forms\/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FFUSF%2DDevelopment%2FShared%20Documents%2FFUS%5FNeurodegenerative%2Epdf&amp;parent=%2Fsites%2FFUSF%2DDevelopment%2FShared%20Documents&amp;p=true&amp;wdLOR=cF08C24CE%2D3E05%2D48D3%2D9B9C%2DEB0891A6E8D0&amp;ct=1661384679775&amp;or=Outlook-Body&amp;cid=0AF0D68D-F13B-4C1C-B5D7-83C9623A7D69&amp;ga=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Focused Ultrasound: Transforming treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases<\/strong><\/a> August 2022<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yang HM. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/40871062\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Overcoming the Blood-Brain Barrier: Advanced Strategies in Targeted Drug Delivery for Neurodegenerative Diseases<\/strong><\/a>. Pharmaceutics. 2025 Aug 11;17(8):1041. doi: 10.3390\/pharmaceutics17081041. PMID: 40871062\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rasouli R, Hartl B, Konecky SD.<strong> <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/40661336\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Low-intensity\u202fultrasound\u202flysis\u202fof amyloid microclots in a lab-on-chip model<\/strong><\/a>. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2025 Jun 30;13:1604447. doi: 10.3389\/fbioe.2025.1604447. eCollection 2025. PMID:\u202f40661336&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Helal MM, Ibrahim AA, Beddor A, Kashbour M. <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/39751928\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Breaking Barriers in Huntington&#8217;s Disease Therapy: Focused Ultrasound for Targeted Drug Delivery<\/strong><\/a>. Neurochem Res. 2025 Jan 3;50(1):68. doi: 10.1007\/s11064-024-04302-w. PMID: 39751928&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lin CY, Tsai CH, Feng LY, Chai WY, Lin CJ, Huang CY, Wei KC, Yeh CK, Chen CM, Liu HL.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/31079989\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Focused ultrasound-induced blood brain-barrier opening enhanced vascular permeability for GDNF delivery in Huntington&#8217;s disease mouse model<\/strong><\/a>. Brain Stimul. 2019 Apr 27. pii: S1935-861X(19)30203-7. doi: 10.1016\/j.brs.2019.04.011. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 31079989<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gutierrez MI, Penilla EH, Leija L, Vera A, Garay JE, Aguilar G.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/28766896\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Novel Cranial Implants of Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia as Acoustic Windows for Ultrasonic Brain Therapy<\/strong><\/a>. Adv Healthc Mater. 2017 Aug 2. doi: 10.1002\/adhm.201700214.<br><br>Burgess A, Huang Y, Querbes W, Sah DW, Hynynen K.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/22921802\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Focused ultrasound for targeted delivery of siRNA and efficient knockdown of Htt expression<\/strong><\/a>. J Control Release. 2012 Oct 28;163(2):125-9. doi: 10.1016\/j.jconrel.2012.08.012. Epub 2012 Aug 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=(%22focused+ultrasound%22+OR+HIFU)+and+%22huntington%27s%22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Click <\/strong>here<\/a> for additional references from PubMed.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":1,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"sw_disease_condition_cat":[6],"sw_disease_condition_stage":[20],"class_list":["post-3013","sw_disease_condition","type-sw_disease_condition","status-publish","hentry","sw_disease_condition_cat-neurological"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - 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