Treatment for Common Insomnia Could Potentially Prevent Brain Damage Associated with Alzheimer's
Sleep Disorders: A Global Concern That Might Lead to Dementia and Alzheimer's
Approximately 70 million people worldwide grapple with sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea. These issues can significantly impact a person's capacity to focus and their overall mental health.
Sleep deprivation has been linked to an increased risk of various health conditions, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, gastrointestinal issues, and even dementia and Alzheimer's disease. According to David M. Holtzman, a renowned neuroscientist, sleep disorders often present signs years before other symptoms of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease and related disorders appear.
Research from Holtzman's lab and others has demonstrated that disrupted sleep elevates the levels of both amyloid and tau, two proteins that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Holtzman is the senior author of a new study published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, which suggests that Sleep Disorder medication Lemborexant, sold under the brand name Dayvigo, could not only improve sleep quality but also protect the brain from tau buildup.
Understanding Lemborexant
Lemborxant belongs to a class of sleep medications called dual orexin receptor antagonists. These drugs work by blocking orexin, a protein in the brain that keeps us awake and alert. By blocking orexin signaling, the medication allows sleep to occur quickly and more easily, acting like a light switch that turns off to ensure the brain and body gets the rest it needs.
Scientists used lemborexant to treat a model of mice that were genetically prone to having tau buildup in the brain. The test group of mice treated with lemborexant experienced a significant decrease in tau buildup, leading to the prevention of inflammatory brain damage typically associated with Alzheimer's disease.
Tau Protein and Brain Health
In a healthy brain, tau protein acts as a 'track' that helps support the shape of cells and helps move nutrients and signals where they need to go. However, in Alzheimer's and a group of neurodegenerative disorders primarily affected by abnormal tau called tauopathies, abnormal tau loses its shape, integrity, and cellular functionality, leading to tau tangles. The progressive buildup of these tau tangles leads to nerve cell death, contributing to memory loss, confusion, and other cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
Treating the mice with lemborexant helped prevent the buildup of tau in the brain, reducing the inflammatory brain damage that tau buildup is known to cause in Alzheimer's disease. Research has demonstrated that inflammation in the brain is a significant factor contributing to the brain damage seen in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.
Consequently, by decreasing both the abnormal buildup of tau and inflammatory damage, lemborexant may be highly effective in safeguarding the brain from these sources of injury.
Additionally, scientists discovered that mice treated with lemborexant had a 30-40% larger hippocampus volume compared to those not treated with the medication, indicating reduced brain damage and cellular loss in the treated mice.
A Potential Breakthrough in Treating Alzheimer's and Insomnia
The findings from this new study are consistent with previous research linking restful sleep with better cognitive health. For example, a study led by Gary Small, a psychiatrist at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, found a connection between sleep quality and both objective measures of sustained attention and self-awareness of memory decline.
"Nearly 40% of people in the U.S. complain of insomnia, which can lead to daytime fatigue, memory issues, difficulty concentrating, anxiety, depression, irritability, and disrupted work and social activities," Small pointed out. "Available medicines may lead to dependency and pose such side effects as daytime drowsiness, dizziness, headache, unusual dreams, and memory problems. Finding innovative treatments that reduce tau accumulation in the brain and promote restful sleep would have the dual effect of combating Alzheimer's disease and chronic insomnia."
While this research is promising, findings in an animal model must move forward to clinical trials with human volunteers to determine the safety and effectiveness of this potential treatment.
- Sleep disorders, such as insomnia and sleep apnea, which affect approximately 70 million people worldwide, might increase the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease due to their impact on neurological conditions.
- In a new study published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, it was suggested that the sleep disorder medication Lemborexant, sold under the brand name Dayvigo, could not only improve sleep quality but also protect the brain from tau buildup associated with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.
- Lemborexant, a dual orexin receptor antagonist, works by blocking orexin, a brain protein that keeps us awake and alert, allowing sleep to occur quickly and more easily, acting like a light switch that turns off to ensure the brain and body get the rest they need.
- Research on a model of mice prone to tau buildup in the brain demonstrated that treating them with lemborexant resulted in a significant decrease in tau buildup, preventing inflammatory brain damage typically associated with Alzheimer's disease and reducing abnormal tau accumulation and inflammatory damage in the brain.
- The potential treatment's ability to reduce tau accumulation in the brain and promote restful sleep could have a dual effect of combating Alzheimer's disease and chronic insomnia, offering a promising breakthrough for health-and-wellness and therapies-and-treatments for both conditions.
