PLASMA-AMINOACID LEVELS IN HUNTINGTON'S CHOREA

Abstract Concentrations of six aminoacids were found to be significantly lower in fasting plasma of a group of nineteen patients with Huntington's chorea, than in the plasma of a group of twenty adult controls or a group of eighteen inpatients with chronic schizophrenia. These aminoacids were proline, alanine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, and tyrosine. Similar, but less striking, changes were found in the cerebrospinal fluid of Huntington's chorea patients as compared with the cerebrospinal fluid of controls. The decrease in plasma concentrations of certain aminoacids in Huntington's chorea does not seem to be caused by environmental factors, and may be a secondary reflection of the basic biochemical error underlying this hereditary disorder.