A research team at the Chinese University of Hong Kong has announced the discovery of a new underlying mechanism and possible therapeutic target for Huntington’s disease, a rare, incurable illness that can cause twitching movements and cognitive decline.

The team at the School of Life Sciences said on Monday it had found a 4.5-fold increase in the level of a protein called PAPD5 in the brains of patients with Huntington’s disease compared with healthy individuals, which contributed to neuronal apoptosis, or nerve cell death.

They claimed their research showed that blocking the activity of PAPD5 could reduce these harmful effects, opening up new possibilities for developing medication.

Their research paper was published in the international journal Nature Communications on April 9.

“We provide a new angle to understand the underlying mechanism. This PAPD5-mediated pathway was first uncovered in our study. It has not been reported before,” said Stephen Chen Zhefan, an assistant professor at the School of Life Sciences and the lead author of the paper.

“In addition to strengthening our understanding of the disease mechanisms, we also propose a new target for the future, a therapeutic development against Huntington’s disease.”