Huntington vs Parkinson

2/21/24, 6 mins reading

Huntington’s disease is also a degenerative neurological disorder. As another basal ganglia disorder, Huntington’s disease shares a lot with Parkinson’s disease in terms of causes, symptoms, treatments, etc. For instance, both are neurodegenerative disorders in which neurons are damaged and die over time, and the condition gets worse and worse as the disease progresses. Both diseases mostly occur to old people, however they could also take place among young generation. From clinical standpoint, both conditions demonstrate motor symptoms and non-motor symptoms. Last, but not least, both disorders are treatable, but not curable. However, there are a slew of differences between these two disorders.

Prevalence. With 0.3% prevalence in industrialized countries, Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease behind Alzheimer’s disease. While Huntington’s disease occurs at a much less rate with only a prevalence of 0.01%.

Cause. There are still no known causes for Parkinson’s disease despite that it is believed that both genetic and environmental elements contribute to it. The majority of cases of Parkinson’s disease are idiopathic and sporadic although Gene mutations such as SNCA, LRRK2 have been found in the families. On the other hand, Huntington’s disease is mostly inherited, the vast majority of cases are discovered within families. Huntingtin gene (HTT) has been identified and confirmed to be the cause of Huntington’s disease.

Gender. In Parkinson’s disease, Men are two times more likely than women to develop PD. It is still unknown why there is a gender difference in terms of incidence. In Huntington’s disease, both men and women have an equal risk of developing Huntington’s disease.

Onset age. A large number of Parkinson’s disease patients are diagnosed at the age of 50 or older with an average age of 60. However, Huntington’s disease patients are generally diagnosed at a younger age 30-55. Being diagnosed at younger ( before 30) does happen to both conditions in some cases, however, the rate of that is relatively small.

Brain region. The signature area involved in Parkinson’s disease is the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc)in the midbrain. The death of dopamine-producing neurons from SNpc is the hallmark pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease. On the other hand, the brain region involved in Huntington’s disease is the striatum, where neurons receive projections from SNpc area and forms the nigrostriatal pathway. Both SNpc and striatum are parts of the basal ganglia.

Symptoms. Generally speaking, Both Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease patients present motor and no motor symptoms. Nonetheless, they differ when it comes to the form or rhythm of motor manifestation. For instance, hand shaking in Parkinson’s disease is rhythmic and constant, it occurs in fingers or hands. However, handshaking in Huntington’s disease is jerking, and dancelike, and it occurs in hands, and fingers first, and more likely extends to the whole body later.

Keyword: basal ganglia

The Basal ganglia is a cluster of cells located deep in the brain. It has been associated with a multitude of functions including motor, cognition, and reward. Structurely speaking, it includes the striatum(dorsal striatum: caudate nucleus and putamen, and the ventral striatum: nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle), the globus pallidus, the ventral pallidum, the substantia nigra, and the subthalamic nucleus. The dysfunctions in basal ganglia could lead to Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease.

Basal ganglia structure in the human brain.