Rhes Protein Key in Spread of Huntington’s Disease In the Brain

Pathogenic proteins help spread many neurodegenerative diseases. How they move between brain cells is often shrouded in mystery.

But scientists at Scripps Research’s Florida campus have found that nanotube tunnels that act like roadways capable of transporting cargo between cells can transmit a toxic protein linked to Huntington’s disease from neuron to neuron in mouse models.

The finding is an important extension of work published by the same researchers in 2019 that demonstrated how the rhes protein triggered the construction of the nanotube tunnels in cell culture, thus revealing a mechanism allowing the toxic protein to spread in the brain and damage neurons.

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