IBM Research and CHDI Foundation, a non-profit biomedical research organization, are using an artificial intelligence (AI) model that can predict when a person will experience symptoms of Huntington’s disease (HD), a genetic disorder that causes progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the brain, as well as how rapidly these symptoms will progress.
Huntington’s disease is caused by a single gene mutation. According to the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, more than 200,000 Americans are currently at risk of inheriting the genetic-based disease. Most people with Huntington’s disease develop signs and symptoms between the ages of 30 to 50.
In a new study published in the Scientific Reports journal by Nature Research, IBM and CHDI researchers studied the relationship between the pace of subtle cognitive decline in patients before full-fledged symptoms and their brain activity, as shown by a functional MRI.
The results demonstrate that measuring the potential progression of HD could eventually be done from a single brain scan, acquired in one visit.