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Huntingtin Overexpression Does Not Alter Overall Survival in Murine Cancer Models
Laura Lynn Chan1, Austin Hill1, Ge Lu1
1Department of Medical Genetics and Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, Child and Family Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Abstract:
A reduced incidence of various forms of cancer has been reported in Huntington's disease patients and may be due to pro-apoptotic effects of mutant huntingtin. We tested this hypothesis by assessing the effects of huntingtin protein overexpression on survival in two murine cancer models. We generated YAC HD mice containing human huntingtin transgenes with various CAG tract lengths (YAC18, YAC72, YAC128) on either an Msh2 or p53 null background which have increased cancer incidence. In both mouse models of cancer, the overexpression of either mutant or wild-type huntingtin had no significant effect on overall survival. These results do not support the hypothesis that mutant huntingtin expression is protective against cancer.

