2023-04-20 14:50:00
[파이낸셜뉴스] Can sleeping pills cure dementia?
American researchers found out that sleeping pills lowered levels of proteins ‘amyloid’ and ‘tau’ that cause Alzheimer’s disease through a simple clinical trial. The sleep aid ‘suvorexant’ lowered the level of the protein that causes dementia by 10% to 20%. Because higher levels of Alzheimer’s protein make the disease worse, the findings of the study uncover the possibility of preventing, delaying or even treating dementia.
Sleep disturbance, early symptoms of Alzheimer’s
On the 20th, researchers at Washington Medical University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, published the results of this study in the ‘Annals of Neurology’. Although further research is needed, the findings suggest that sleeping pills have the potential to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. “We found evidence that a drug already available and proven safe through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) affects a key protein that causes Alzheimer’s disease,” said Brandon Lucy, M.D., director of the University of Washington Center for Sleep Medicine and associate professor of neurology. “he said.
According to the researchers, sleep disturbance may be one of the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. A significant number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s have trouble sleeping for years before cognitive problems such as memory loss and confusion appear. Alzheimer’s disease causes changes in the brain that interfere with sleep, and lack of sleep adds to detrimental changes in the brain, and the vicious cycle repeats itself.
Alzheimer’s also begins when deposits of the protein amyloid begin to build up in the brain. After years of amyloid build-up, another protein, tau, forms toxic tangles in neurons. People with Alzheimer’s begin to experience cognitive symptoms, such as memory loss, by the time tau tangles are detected.
Researchers are the first to show that sleep deprivation is associated with higher levels of amyloid and tau in the brain. However, they did not know whether good sleep reduces the level of the protein that causes Alzheimer’s disease, halts or slows the progression of the disease.
The research team found out that suborexant affects the levels of amyloid and tau in the brain through rat experiments. “If you can lower your amyloid levels every day, over time, the amyloid deposits in your brain will decrease,” said Dr. Lucy. He also explained that “tau is very important in the development of Alzheimer’s disease because it forms tangles and kills the nerve cells ‘neurons’ in the brain.”
Amyloid levels reduced by 10-20%
The drug has already been proven available and safe through the FDA, and now we have evidence that it affects a protein important in causing Alzheimer’s disease. Suborexant is a drug that blocks the natural biomolecule ‘orexin’ that makes you wake up and makes you fall asleep. So far, three orexin inhibitors have been approved by the FDA, with more drugs on the way.
The researchers then conducted a clinical trial to determine the effect of suborexant on people.
First, 38 people aged 45 to 65 without cognitive impairment were recruited and tested for 2 nights and 3 days. Participants in the experiment were divided into three groups and had them take the medicine at 9:00 pm and then go to sleep. Twelve were given 15 mg of suborexant, 13 were given 10 mg of suborexant, and 13 were given more of a fake sleeping pill. The research team extracted cerebrospinal fluid from 1 hour before taking the drug every 2 hours for 36 hours and looked at how the levels of amyloid and tau changed.
As a result, those who took the sleeping pills on the first day had 10 to 20 percent lower amyloid levels than those who took the placebo. Tau levels also dropped by 10 to 15 percent compared to those who took the placebo. On the other hand, those who took a small amount of sleeping pills had similar levels to those who took a placebo. Tau levels increased in the sleeping pill group up to 24 hours following the first dose, while amyloid levels remained lower than those in the placebo group. On the second night, those who took the sleeping pills had lower levels of both proteins once more.
However, it is still a proof-of-concept study, and it does not mean that Alzheimer’s patients or those who are worried regarding it should take sleeping pills right away.
“We do not yet know if long-term use is effective in preventing cognitive decline,” Dr. Lucy warned. “The best thing you can do at this point is to get as much sleep as possible, and if you can’t do that, see a sleep specialist to treat your sleep problems,” Dr. Lucy said.
[email protected] Reporter Kim Man-gi
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