Huntington's disease is a genetic neurological disorder and it’s characterized by abnormal movements called chorea, accompanied by a lack of coordination. The Huntington's disease also affects some mental abilities and behavior. One who has the disease is expected to live no longer than fifty years and the symptoms usually become noticeable before a person is twenty years old.

Huntington's disease is caused by trinucleotide repeat expansion when the huntingtin gene which codes for the huntingtin protein contains a region of CAG repeats. When the number of repeats exceeds the normal range, the protein which results from here has too much polyglutamine tract, this produces the mutant Huntingtin.

The presence of this mutant increases the rate of neuronal cell death and the symptoms for the disease are physical, cognitive and psychiatric.

On Friday the first treatment for this disease in the United States was approved. The drug is called Xenazine and it won’t cure the Huntington's. The drug also has serious side effects like suicidal thoughts and depressions, but the uncontrollable movements caused by the disease will decrease when using this drug.

Doctors say that many people having Huntington's are ashamed to go out as they can’t control their movements. The disease affects nearly 30,000 patients in the U.S.

The Xenazine reduces the amount of dopamine, which is essential when communicating signals between nerve cells. But in Huntington's the system is overactive so the dopamine must be reduced as it also reduces the number of wrong movements.