Concepts of Genetics 11th Edition by William Klug,Michael Cummings,Charlotte Spencer,Michael Palladino

Exercise 2

Huntington disease (HD) is a dominantly inherited, adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder that affects about 1 in 10,000 people. Onset is around 50 years of age, there is no treatment, and the disorder inevitably causes dementia and loss of motor control, and is fatal. To study the cellular and molecular mechanisms associated with HD, animal models, including mice and Drosophila , have been created by transferring mutant human HD genes into these organisms. However, some of the behavioral changes seen in HD mice and fruit flies are difficult to correlate with those seen in affected humans. To more closely replicate the cognitive and motor changes in HD, researchers have created a primate model using rhesus macaques, which are one of our closest relatives and share many similarities with humans, including life span, cellular metabolism, as well as endocrine and reproductive functions. However, their use raises several important questions.
Does it seem likely that results from using rhesus macaques will translate directly to an understanding of the disease process in humans and lead to treatment?