2023-08-31 11:00:05
If the difficulty of staying awake may seem trivial, it is nevertheless the main symptom of one of the most severe sleep disorders: narcolepsy.
In Montpellier, the Reference Center for Rare Narcolepsies and Hypersomnias (Inserm/University/CHU of Montpellier) directed by Yves Dauvilliers is conducting cutting-edge research on this disease (The disease is an alteration in the functions or health of a living organism , animal…). The neurologist and his collaborators in partnership with the Takeda laboratory have just conducted a revolutionary study on a promising treatment. Works published in the New England Journal of Medicine July 27, 2023.
If the difficulty in staying awake may seem trivial, it is nevertheless the main symptom of one of the most severe sleep disorders: narcolepsy (Narcolepsy or GĂ©lineau’s disease is a serious neurological condition…).
Image d’illustration Unsplash
Nearly 20,000 people in France are affected by narcolepsy, a disease which generally appears between the ages of 15 and 20. While difficulty staying awake is the main symptom of this neurological condition, it is not the only one. Drowsiness can sometimes be accompanied by weight gain, hallucinations, paralysis (paralysis or plegia is a loss of motricity by reduction or loss of…) sleep and frequently cataplexy, in other words a “loss of muscle strength linked to favorable emotions such as laughter”, explains Yves Dauvilliers of the Montpellier University Hospital, and team leader of the Institute (An institute is a permanent organization created for a certain purpose. It is…) of Neurosciences (The neurosciences correspond to all the biological disciplines and…) of Montpellier, Inserm, University of Montpellier (The University of Montpellier was a teaching establishment…).
Narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease of genetic origin (Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ = to give birth is…) and environmental whose symptoms are caused by the destruction of a particular category of neurons, those which synthesize orexin, otherwise known as hypocretin, a neurotransmitter whose main role is to stimulate wakefulness. 80,000 neurons are thus destroyed in narcoleptic patients who therefore lack orexin. Consequence: impossible for them to maintain this state of wakefulness for long.
Patients who declare themselves cured
Yves Dauvilliers and his colleagues tested a new treatment developed by the Takeda laboratory, an orexin 2 receptor agonist, “a molecule that acts as a key similar to orexin and therefore has the same effects on the body” . If an equivalent treatment had already been tested by intravenous injection, it was for the first time given to patients in oral form. “They were divided into three groups which received doses of 30 mg, 90 mg or 120 mg of this molecule called TAK-994 and a group with a placebo”, specifies Yves Dauvilliers. And in terms of improvement, the results were dramatic: “we didn’t just have an improvement in symptoms, for the first time, patients just felt cured”. If the clinical trial had to be stopped prematurely due to hepatic side effects in some patients, it nevertheless opens the door to a real hope of cure (Healing is a biological process by which the cells of the body…) for all narcoleptics who struggle to stay awake.
“We are already working on a new agonist with a greater affinity for the orexin 2 receptor, and which would therefore have fewer side effects”, explains Yves Dauvilliers.
While waiting for the arrival of this future treatment, the neurologist insists on the importance of an early diagnosis of the disease.
“You have to understand that sleeping in class when you’re young can reveal an underlying disease,” insists Yves Dauvilliers. Today on average it takes 8 years to diagnose narcolepsy, and only 1/3 of patients have a diagnosis, it’s really too little “.
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