At the Institut Curie, CNRS and Inserm researchers have shown that cysteamine, which is already used to treat a rare disease called cystinosis, prevents the death of neurons in Huntington’s disease. Like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease, is characterized by the abnormal death of neurons. Cysteamine raises neuronal levels of BDNF protein, a trophic factor which is depleted in Huntington’s disease, and by assaying BDNF in the blood it is possible to evaluate the effect of treatment. If other studies confirm these results, cysteamine could soon be used to treat Huntington’s disease, and BDNF could serve as a biomarker of...