Claudia Testa, MD, PhD

“They’re really going to change how people’s disease progresses…if they work out. Even if they all work, not any single one of them is a 100% fix, especially not for 100% of people with Huntington disease.”

With recent advancements in genetics allowing for the therapeutic development pipeline to fill in the Huntington disease space, the level of excitement about treatments for the condition has risen in parallel.

Although, according to Claudia Testa, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology at Virginia Commonwealth University, it’s likely that none of these treatments will be a 1-stop cure-all for Huntington disease. Odds are, she said, that some of these treatments will be used in combination with one another. And while that prospect seems to be a topic of discussion among both manufacturers and researchers, the hope is that perhaps that expectation is incorrect.

To discuss the prospect of these gene therapies in development and how they may be used in the future, Testa sat down with 

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The professor of neurology at VCU spoke about the possibility of pairing gene therapies for Huntington disease down the line when they are available.

Claudia Testa, MD, PhD: Pairing Huntington Disease Treatments

“The range of stuff that’s already in humans—people often ask about CRISPR and [such]&mdash;there’s tons of science going on but what’s impressive to me is that there’s a lot of stuff in actual people, really getting pushed forward in the now.”

A decade ago, a diagnosis of Huntington disease was essentially a sign that it was time to give up. With little to do in terms of treatments and a less-than-full pipeline for development, the future looked bleak, to say the least.

In the past few years, though, much of that has changed. Claudia Testa, MD, PhD, has watched this explosion of research herself. With multiple agents, including viral vector gene therapies, being developed, and now, making their way into human trials, the light at the end of the tunnel has gotten significantly brighter.

For Testa, it’s less about the one big step that’s being made and more about the slew of small steps that are truly altering the landscape of treatment for Huntington disease. Many are disease-modifying, having an effect on the progression of the condition itself.

The professor of neurology at Virginia Commonwealth University sat with 

 at the American Neurological Association’s 143rd Annual Meeting to discuss all the progress that’s been made in the space, and her thoughts on the advances.

The professor of neurology at Virginia Commonwealth University discussed all the progress that’s been made in the space and shared her thoughts on the advances.

Claudia Testa, MD, PhD

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Claudia Testa, MD, PhD: Pairing Huntington Disease Treatments

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