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Astrocytes go awry in Huntington's disease

Nature Neuroscience volume 17, pages 641–642 (2014)Cite this article

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It is widely believed that Huntington's disease is driven exclusively by neuronal dysfunction. Work now challenges this view, showing that mutant huntingtin in astrocytes leads to dysregulation of extracellular K+.

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Figure 1: mHtt accumulation in astrocytes impairs extracellular K+ buffering and increases the excitability of striatal SPNs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. C. Savio Chan and D. James Surmeier are in the Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.,

    C Savio Chan & D James Surmeier

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  1. C Savio Chan
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  2. D James Surmeier
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Correspondence to C Savio Chan or D James Surmeier.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Chan, C., Surmeier, D. Astrocytes go awry in Huntington's disease. Nat Neurosci 17, 641–642 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3705

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