Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
Volume 23, Issue 13, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23137163
Keywords
Huntington's disease pathway; male infertility; spermatozoa; zinc-containing; interacting proteins; Huntington's disease model
Funding
- USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grants [2020-67015-31017, 2021-67015-33404, 2022-67015-36298, 2019-67012-29714]
- NIH [OD1 R01 OD028223-01]
- CAFNR Joy of Discovery Seed Grant award
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Huntington's Disease is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with motor dysfunction and cognitive deficits. It also leads to reduced fertility. Although there are pharmaceuticals to manage its symptoms, an effective treatment for the disease is yet to be approved. Identification of genes, diagnostic biomarkers, and therapeutic target pathways could help in early diagnosis and management of the disease.
Huntington's Disease (HD) is a fatal autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease manifested through motor dysfunction and cognitive deficits. Decreased fertility is also observed in HD animal models and HD male patients, due to altered spermatogenesis and sperm function, thus resulting in reduced fertilization potential. Although some pharmaceuticals are currently utilized to mitigate HD symptoms, an effective treatment that remedies the pathogenesis of the disease is yet to be approved by the FDA. Identification of genes and relevant diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic target pathways including glycolysis and mitochondrial complex-I-dependent respiration may be advantageous for early diagnosis, management, and treatment of the disease. This review addresses the HD pathway in neuronal and sperm metabolism, including relevant gene and protein expression in both neurons and spermatozoa, indicated in the pathogenesis of HD. Furthermore, zinc-containing and zinc-interacting proteins regulate and/or are regulated by zinc ion homeostasis in both neurons and spermatozoa. Therefore, this review also aims to explore the comparative role of zinc in both neuronal and sperm function. Ongoing studies aim to characterize the products of genes implicated in HD pathogenesis that are expressed in both neurons and spermatozoa to facilitate studies of future treatment avenues in HD and HD-related male infertility. The emerging link between zinc homeostasis and the HD pathway could lead to new treatments and diagnostic methods linking genetic sperm defects with somatic comorbidities.
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