University of Central Florida
The purpose of this study is to find out if there is a connection between the naturally occurring bacteria in our bodies and the progression of Huntington disease. The investigators are trying to determine if patients who are diagnosed with adult-onset HD and who exhibit a rapid rate of disease progression have unique populations of bacteria in their gut as compared to patients with slower progression.
Two of the most common non-neurological features of Huntington disease (HD) are progressive weight loss and metabolic dysfunction. However, a small proportion of HD patients are pathologically overweight, despite having similar CAG repeat lengths as pathologically underweight patients. The investigators hypothesize this spectrum of weight abnormalities may be caused by HD-related metabolic dysfunction. Pathological weight loss is recapitulated in transgenic HD model mice expressing fragments of human huntingtin (HTT), either transgenically3,4 or knocked-in to a portion of the mouse HD homolog…
* Inclusion Criteria: * 18 years or older * Provide informed consent * Able to read and speak English * Agree to comply with study procedures * Inclusion criteria for the control group include: * CAG repeat length ≤ 26. * BMI 18.5-24.9 * Inclusion criteria for experimental group 1 include: * BMI \< 18.5 (underweight) or significant, involuntary weight loss within the past 12 months. * CAG repeat length 40 - 59. * Documentation of the Clinical Diagnosis of HD with a high level of certainty (\>99% confidence) using the validated Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHD…
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