NAVIGATOR Coalition Program Awards Grant

The Society awarded a NAVIGATOR Coalition grant in December 2002. Funds were granted to Dr. Blair Leavitt of the Laboratory for Experimental Therapeutics in Animal Models of Human Disease at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Leavitt provided the following description of his research.

Calpain Inhibitors as Potential Therapeutic Agents in HD
By Dr. Blair Leavitt

Despite recent advances in our understanding of how HD affects the body at the cellular level, there are currently no known treatments that halt the progression or delay onset of the disease.

The primary aim of this proposal, and of my laboratory, is to develop the infrastructure and expertise required to effectively test new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of Huntington disease in transgenic mouse models (mice that have the gene that causes HD artificially added to their genetic make-up). Better animal disease models and more accurate pre-clinical evaluation of potential therapeutic approaches will help prevent the massive expense and the disappointment of non-informative or unsuccessful clinical trials.

The second aim of this proposal will determine whether selective inhibition of a critical proteolytic enzyme (enzymes that are involved in splitting or breaking up proteins into smaller pieces) in the brain, calpain, will prevent neuronal damage in the YAC128 transgenic mouse model of HD. Calpain inhibition may be a viable therapeutic approach in HD, and may lead to the development of novel treatments for this currently incurable neurodegenerative disease.

Novel therapeutic approaches that are effective in HD may be beneficial in other neurodegenerative disorders, and in the future we will utilize our standardized approach to investigate new therapeutics in animal models of ALS, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

More information about the NAVIGATOR Coalition Research Program:

All research grants of the Huntington Society of Canada are granted through the NAVIGATOR Coalition Research Program, which aims to fund the most promising research in Huntington disease.

The Society receives grant applications from across Canada - and sometimes from outside of Canada. All applications are reviewed by the Society's Research Council, chaired by Dr. Harold Robertson from Dalhousie University.

The Research Council is currently reviewing several requests for funding for additional research projects. Funding decisions will be made shortly, and the next round of NAVIGATOR awards will be granted in March.