Normal excretion of quinolinic acid in Huntington's disease.

Abstract

We measured the excretion of the endogenous neurotoxin quinolinic acid in 14 patients with Huntington's disease and in 11 age matched control subjects. Huntingtonian patients excreted less quinolinic acid, than controls. When normalised to urea or creatinine output quinolinic acid excretion was normal. We conclude that Huntington's disease is not associated with a generalised disturbance of quinolinic acid metabolism, however, a local hyperproduction of quinolinic acid cannot be excluded from our results.