The ISN Symposium entitled "Exploring possibilities of therapeutic strategies for polyglutatamine diseases." was held Sep 26, 2003 at Toki Messe (Niigata Convention Center, Niigata, Japan) in conjunction with the 46th annual meeting of Japanese Society for Neurochemistry. The focus of this Symposium was to explore possibilities of therapeutic strategies for polyglutamine diseases.

Speakers:
Kurt H. Fischbeck (NINCDS, NIH)
Histone deacetylase inhibitors for polyglutamine diseases.

Gen Sobue (Nagoya Univ.)
Intervention of nuclear transport of androgen receptor.

Henry Paulson (Department of Neurology, University of Iowa College of Medicine)
Application of RNA interference for treatment of polyglutamine diseases

Eric E. Wanker (Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biology, Berlin, Germany)
High throughput screening for small molecules that suppress conformational changes of polyglutamine stretches.

Dr. Kurt H. Fischbeck (NINCDS, NIH) provided an excellent review of recent development of pathophysiologic mechanisms of polyglutamine diseases and presented recent data on the potential application of histone deacetylase inhibitors for polyglutamine diseases. Dr. Gen Gen Sobue (Nagoya Univ.) presented amazing therapeutic approaches for spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy. Based on the knowledge that nuclear transport of androgen receptor depends on the presence of androgen, he showed endocrinological intervention to reduce blood levels of testosterone dramatically prevented development of neurologic phenotypes. Dr. Henry Paulson (Department of Neurology, University of Iowa College of Medicine) discussed on the possibilities of application of RNA interference for treatment of polyglutamine diseases. Eric E. Wanker (Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biology, Berlin, Germany) presented his recent progresses in the high throughput screening for molecules with the capability of inhibiting aggregation of polyglutamine stretches.

The Symposium was attended by 180 scientists including young investigators. The presentations were well focused and stimulating discussions among the speakers and the audience were made. Thus the ISN Symposium was very successful.

Shoji Tsuji