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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Fractionation for Resolution of Soluble and Insoluble Huntingtin Species
Published on: February 27, 2018
Rhes, a striatal specific protein, mediates mutant-huntingtin cytotoxicity
Srinivasa Subramaniam1, Katherine M Sixt, Roxanne Barrow
1Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 725 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Abstract:
Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by a polyglutamine repeat in the protein huntingtin (Htt) with mutant Htt (mHtt) expressed throughout the body and similarly in all brain regions. Yet, HD neuropathology is largely restricted to the corpus striatum. We report that the small guanine nucleotide-binding protein Rhes, which is localized very selectively to the striatum, binds physiologically to mHtt. Using cultured cells, we found Rhes induces sumoylation of mHtt, which leads to cytotoxicity. Thus, Rhes-mHtt interactions can account for the localized neuropathology of HD.
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