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Announcement 6th Januar 2025

HDFTY – A Huntington’s disease study to repurpose FTY720 – funding aquisition
Funding organisations: we are seeking funding from private and state organisations
Proposed start: 2025

Partners:
Prof. Jens Pahnke, University of Oslo (UiO) & Oslo University Hospital (OUS), Oslo, Norway
Prof. Tatyana Gurevich, National Huntington’s Disease Center at Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel
Interested ? Pls send email to us !

Abstract:
We have investigated novel treatment options for Huntington’s disease since a few years based on our previous work on Alzheimer’s disease and ABC transporters.
Recently, we have discovered an effective treatment to modulate disease onset and progress (Wu et al. 2025) based on a known molecular signalling mechanism involving ceramides and sphingomyelin metabolism.
We have tested a repurposed drug used in Mutiple sclerosis treatment, fingolimod also known as FTY720, in a cross-over design study involving 128 mice until an age of 57 weeks and could confirm disease preventing effects in female mice and disease delaying effects in male mice. We could also determine the rescue of organ atrophy due to HD in the mice (testis, brain) and improvement of essential motor funtions.

Keywords: Huntington’s disease; drug repurposing; neurodegenerative diseases; Sphingomyelin signalling; Fingolimod; FTY720

Resources / Links:
A7HD project application to JPND 2024 – read more….