Doctors have announced the first successful treatment for Huntington’s disease, a devastating inherited condition that combines symptoms of dementia, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease.

The groundbreaking gene therapy has slowed disease progression by 75% in patients, meaning the decline typically seen in one year would now take four years, potentially giving patients decades of improved quality of life, the BBC reports.

“We never in our wildest dreams would have expected a 75% slowing of clinical progression,” said Professor Sarah Tabrizi, director of the University College London Huntington’s Disease Centre, who led the UK part of the trial alongside Professor Ed Wild.

The treatment involves a complex 12- to 18-hour brain surgery, where a specially modified virus delivers therape

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