Diffusion MRI reveals rescue of structural changes in a mouse model of Huntington’s disease by mutant Huntingtin lowering

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder for which no cure is available. There is an urgent need to find early biomarkers which are sensitive enough to determine and follow up the efficacy of novel therapies. In this study, we present the outcome of a treatment study in the LacQ140 HD mouse model using diffusion tensor/kurtosis imaging (DTI/DKI) and fixel-based analysis (FBA). We observed that early, moderate lowering of mutant Huntingtin (mHtt) rescues structural alterations measured in this mouse model with diffusion MRI in the olfactory bulb and striatum, which are prominent regions affected in HD.