BDNF and Huntington disease: Furthermore, beside confirming the potential of pridopidine to represent a symptomatic treatment in HD, our findings highlight a neuroprotective action of the drug; administration of pridopidine increased the expression of both BDNF and DARPP32, proteins normally implicated in neuronal health 36,37 and reduced in animal models of HD and post-mortem samples of HD patients 38, and ameliorated mHtt aggregation, commonly linked to mHtt toxicity 39 Consistently, pridopidine protected HD cells from apoptosis and promoted the activation of pro-survival kinase ERK.