Linked Life Data

2521895

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/2521895

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
3
pubmed:dateCreated
1989-3-24
pubmed:abstractText
Huntington's disease is a neurological disorder characterised by a progressive chorea and dementia. Recent evidence has suggested that dysfunction involving endogenous excitatory amino acids may be important in the pathogenesis of this disease. Following the recent demonstration that kynurenic acid is present in the brain, we examined the levels in various areas of brain from patients who died with Huntington's disease and from age/sex-matched controls. Blocks (100-500 mg) of cortex (Brodmann's areas 4 and 10) and caudate nucleus and globus pallidus (lateral and medial parts) were obtained from the Cambridge Brain Bank. The tissue was then processed for the extraction and analysis of kynurenic acid. Whereas no differences in the content of kynurenic acid were observed in the caudate nucleus, lateral or medial globus pallidus, or prefrontal cortex (area 10) between controls' brains and those from patients who died with Huntington's disease, there was a 94% (p less than 0.01; n = 5) increase in the kynurenic acid content in the motor cortex (area 4) from Huntington's disease brains, relative to those of controls. Some time ago we suggested that a subtle change in the relative concentrations of quinolinic and kynurenic acids might be important in the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration. It is possible that the observation of raised kynurenic acid levels supports this supposition. Further work is now in progress to determine whether the change in kynurenic acid is a primary effect or a compensatory response to an increase in excitatory activity.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Mar
pubmed:issn
0022-3042
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
52
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
985-7
pubmed:dateRevised
2009-9-29
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1989
pubmed:articleTitle
Increase in kynurenic acid in Huntington's disease motor cortex.
pubmed:affiliation
Neuroscience Research Group, St. George's Hospital Medical School, London, England.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't