Moderate hyperhomocysteinemia in patients with Huntington's disease

Hyperhomocysteinemia is considered to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and atherosclerosis. Also patients with dementia, either of Alzheimer's or of vascular type, may present with elevated homocysteine levels. All these disorders are linked with older age and since hyperhomocysteinemia is also frequent in the healthy elderly, we were interested to determine homocysteine concentrations in a younger population of demented patients suffering from Huntington's disease. In 15 patients with Huntington's disease and in a control group of similar age, serum homocysteine concentrations were measured and changes were compared to concentrations of folate and neopterin, the latter being an indicator of immune activation. A subgroup of patients with Huntington's disease presented with elevated homocysteine concentrations compared to healthy controls of similar age. Moderate hyperhomocysteinemia was related to lower folate concentrations and also to higher neopterin levels which indicate increased immune activation. The correlation of homocysteine with neopterin concentrations points to a possible relationship between the development of hyperhomocysteinemia and immune activation in the patients.