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The mechanism that drives the proteins which cause the onset of Huntington's disease has been discovered by scientists, it has been claimed, news which may be interesting to people worried about the medical condition and researching life insurance.

According to the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, a team has found that activating the cell's protein control mechanism may lead to effective strategies to combat the disease.

Commenting on the degenerative illness, Susan Lindquist says: "This is a diabolical disease, because the misfolded protein interacts with and probably traps many other proteins in the cell."

Huntington's can be triggered by a single mutated gene which creates proteins with unusually long repeats of Q - an amino acid glutamine - however, when these proteins clump together, cells are killed off.

But now, researchers have discovered what causes the proteins to be created, information which could have consequences for life insurance policies.

The Huntington's Disease Association states that people who inherit the faulty gene off a parent will develop the condition.

Critical illness cover could be one way that individuals financially prepare themselves should they be at risk from the disease.