The common treatment of insomnia can prevent brain damage

• Up to 70 million people worldwide live with sleep disorder.
• Sleep disorders can have an impact on a person’s risk for several health problems, including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
• A new study revealed that a common drug used to treat insomnia can not only improve the quality of sleep, but also protect the brain from an accumulation of tau protein, via a mouse model.

“The poor quality of sleep and sleep disorders often appear years before other symptoms of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders become apparent”, ” David M. HoltzmanMD, Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III distinguished professor of neurology and scientific director of the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders of the Washington University School of Medicine Medical news today.

He is the main author of a new study published in the journal Nature neuroscienceWho noticed, via a mouse model, that a drug commonly used to treat insomnia can not only improve the quality of sleep, but also protect the brain from an accumulation of tau protein.

For this study, researchers focused on a sleep disorders called lemborexantSold under the Dayvigo brand.

“The Lemborexant belongs to a class of sleep drugs called Double antagonists of orexin receptors“” Samira ParhizkarPHD, an instructor at the Washington University School of Medicine, and the first author of this study, explained to Mnt. “These drugs work by blocking Orexin – A protein in the brain that keeps us awake and alerts. »»

“By blocking Orexin signaling, the drug allows sleep to occur quickly and more easily,” continued Parhizkar. “In other words, if your brain is like a lighting switch that continues to start when you try to sleep, the lemborexant helps turn off this extinguished, so that your brain and your body have the rest it needs.”

Scientists have used lemborexant to treat a mouse model that was genetically subject to an accumulation of tau in the brain.

“In the healthy brain, the Tau protein acts as a” track “that helps support the shape of the cells and helps to move nutrients and signals they have to go,” said Holtzman.

“In Alzheimer’s disease and a group of neurodegenerative disorders mainly affected by the abnormal tau called tauopathiesAn abnormal tau loses its form, its integrity and therefore cell functionality leading to tauvisor of Tau. The progressive construction of these tau tangles leads to a nerve cell death which contributes to the loss of memory, confusion, among other cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, “he said.

At the conclusion of the study, the researchers found that the treatment of mice with lemborexant helped prevent the accumulation of tau in the brain, reducing the inflammatory brain lesions that the accumulation of TAU is known to cause in Alzheimer’s disease.

“The harmful increase in the abnormal tau is closely associated with increased inflammatory damage in the brain,” said Parhizkar. “The search for our laboratory and others has shown that inflammation in the brain is an important factor contributing to the brain lesions observed in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.”

“Consequently, by decreasing both the abnormal accumulation of tau and inflammatory damage, the lemborexant can be very effective in protecting the brain from these sources of injury,” she added.

In addition, scientists discovered that mice treated with the day before hippocampus Volume compared to those not treated with the drug.

“The largest hippocampal volume indicates a reduction in brain lesions and cell loss in mice treated with lemborexant compared to those who have received control of the vehicle,” said Holtzman. “In this last group, the abnormal tau protein continued to accumulate in the brain, resulting in cellular damage, death and therefore the narrowing of the hippocampus generally observed with neurodegeneration.”

Mnt also had the opportunity to speak with Gary PetitMD, president of Psychiatry at the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, about this study.

Small, which was not involved in current research, said that the results of this new study are consistent with previous research connecting resting sleep with better cognitive health.

“For example, My search team found This quality of sleep is linked both to objective measures of sustained attention and self-awareness of the drop in memory, which suggests that interventions to improve the quality of sleep can contribute not only to improve the ability to focus on a particular task but also to reduce complaints of memory, “he told us.

“Other works have shown that restful sleep reduces the amyloid and inflammation of the brain, which may explain why sleep benefits cognition. The team of the University of Washington now sheds additional light on an underlying link between insomnia and cognitive disorders: the accumulation of tau proteins, especially in the brain regions controlling memory, “added Petit.

“Almost 40% of people in the United States complain about insomnia, which can lead to daytime fatigue, memory problems, concentration difficulties, anxiety, depression, irritability and work activities and social activities. to fight against Alzheimer’s disease and chronic insomnia ”

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