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By Curtis Galbraith

Medical research

Peace Country residents taking hope from breakthroughs in Huntington’s Disease research

Oct 9, 2025 | 6:00 AM

People in the Peace Country are welcoming news of new treatments for Huntington’s Disease.

The BBC reported in late September that a gene therapy treatment that is done by brain surgery had slowed the progression of Huntington’s by 75 per cent.

There are also experimental trials being done on drug treatments and the use of spinal taps.

Teepee Creek’s Mack Erno is president of the local chapter of the Huntington’s Society of Canada and the past chair of the national group.

He says these treatments are offering hope to people with the disease.

“I think that’s the message and what we would say is that it absolutely gives hope. It’s really exciting.”

“I think it’s exciting for beyond Huntington’s Disease too because I think a lot of these treatment methods will cross over to other diseases and it’s not that far of a leap.”

Erno believes that the “domino effect”, where breakthroughs in treating one disease lead to advances for treating others, is real and that “we’re on the cusp of some exciting stuff.”

“Huntington’s is a unique one and it’s a good one for testing because of the genetics. It’s very cut and dried. If you have the gene, if you’re positive for the gene for Huntington’s Disease, you will develop the disease.”

“There are some others where we don’t have a genetic marker like that, so it’s a little harder to predict and understand what causes it.”

Erno says local people who take part in fundraising efforts are taking hope from this new research, adding people have to take hope from breakthroughs like this.

“Certainly, there was a bit of excitement from our group of volunteers that put that on every year, you know, this is what we are working toward.”

” I do think this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is the first one (the gene therapy trail) that has had these kinds of results and we’re going to see more. I’m quite confident we will. It’s a matter of when, not if.”

The HD Ride 4 a Cure trail ride takes place every August in the Teepee Creek area. All money raised goes toward Huntington’s Disease research.

Erno says a spinal tap study is being done at the University of Alberta, and one of the subjects is from the Peace Country.

He adds that a treatment for patients will still be a few years away.