ABSTRACT
Huntington's disease (HD) is a rare autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by motor dysfunction, cognitive decline, and psychiatric disturbances. In 2007, FDA approved the use of the drug tetrabenazine (TZB) (dopamine-depleting agent that inhibits the vesicular dopamine transporter) specifically for the treatment of chorea in HD. Antidepressants have a potentially positive effect in neurodegenerative diseases like HD. The protective properties of antidepressants on mitochondria could be of great therapeutic value in HD. The prevention/reversal of neuronal apoptotic death induced by mHTT protein might represent great therapeutic potential to delay the neurodegeneration in HD. Antipsychotic drugs for HD have been used in the treatment of involuntary movements of several neurodisorders but are only palliative, leading to a temporarily limited improvement of clinical symptoms, and produce side effects like depression and sedation. A lot of progress has been made by therapeutic approaches to HD, compared to that based on dopamine depletion by antipsychotic drugs.
