Monkeys genetically modified to have Huntington's

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have created monkeys genetically modified to have Huntington's disease in an effort to gain a deeper understanding of the fatal ailment and uncover clues to possible new treatments.

In the journal Nature on Sunday, the researchers said one of two surviving rhesus macaque monkeys engineered to have the defective gene that causes Huntington's in humans already is showing tell-tale symptoms at age 10 months.

Huntington's -- incurable and hereditary -- is caused by a single abnormal gene in which certain nerve cells in the brain waste away. People are born with the gene but symptoms typically do not appear until middle age.

Researchers often study laboratory animals such as mice to get insights into the underlying biology of diseases. But monkeys and other primates are more similar to people than rodents in physiological, neurological and genetic features.

The scientists at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta said the monkeys are the first primates genetically modified to have a human disease.

They hope studying the monkeys will allow for greater knowledge of Huntington's and ideas for new drugs.

"Rodent species can capture some of the characteristics of the disease, but they have not been satisfactory in being able to really capture the essence of the disease," Stuart Zola, head of the Yerkes center, said in a telephone interview.

"Now we have a genetically modified nonhuman primate that really has captured the clinical signs that we see in patients with Huntington's disease."