RxPG News Feed for RxPG News

Medical Research Health Special Topics World
  Home
 
   Health
 Aging
 Asian Health
 Events
 Fitness
 Food & Nutrition
 Happiness
 Men's Health
 Mental Health
 Occupational Health
 Parenting
 Public Health
 Sleep Hygiene
 Women's Health
 
   Healthcare
 Africa
 Australia
 Canada Healthcare
 China Healthcare
 India Healthcare
 New Zealand
 South Africa
 UK
 USA
 World Healthcare
 
   Latest Research
 Aging
 Alternative Medicine
 Anaethesia
 Biochemistry
 Biotechnology
 Cancer
 Cardiology
 Clinical Trials
 Cytology
 Dental
 Dermatology
 Embryology
 Endocrinology
 ENT
 Environment
 Epidemiology
 Gastroenterology
 Genetics
 Gynaecology
 Haematology
 Immunology
 Infectious Diseases
 Medicine
 Metabolism
 Microbiology
 Musculoskeletal
 Nephrology
 Neurosciences
 Obstetrics
 Ophthalmology
 Orthopedics
 Paediatrics
 Pathology
 Pharmacology
 Physiology
 Physiotherapy
 Psychiatry
  Anorexia Nervosa
  Anxiety
  Bulimia
  CFS
  Child Psychiatry
  Depression
  Forensic Psychiatry
  Learning-Disabilities
  Mood Disorders
  Neuropsychiatry
  Peri-Natal Psychiatry
  Personality Disorders
  Psychology
  Psychoses
  Psychotherapy
  Sleep Disorders
   Circardian Rhythm
  Substance Abuse
  Suicide
 Radiology
 Rheumatology
 Sports Medicine
 Surgery
 Toxicology
 Urology
 
   Medical News
 Awards & Prizes
 Epidemics
 Launch
 Opinion
 Professionals
 
   Special Topics
 Ethics
 Euthanasia
 Evolution
 Feature
 Odd Medical News
 Climate

Last Updated: Oct 11, 2012 - 10:22:56 PM
Sleep Disorders Channel

subscribe to Sleep Disorders newsletter
Latest Research : Psychiatry : Sleep Disorders

   EMAIL   |   PRINT
New sleep gene discovery wakes up scientists

Jul 4, 2006 - 9:51:00 PM , Reviewed by: Ankush Vidyarthi
"The theory was that the mutation caused (more of the PERIOD protein) so you get a short day so you want to get up very early in the morning"

 
[RxPG] Proteins that regulate sleep and biological timing in the body work much differently than previously thought, meaning drug makers must change their approach to making drugs for sleep disorders and depression and other timing-related illnesses.

The surprise finding is an about-face from previous research, said Daniel Forger, assistant professor of math at the University of Michigan. Forger and his collaborators from the University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute have written a paper on the topic, which will appear on in the July 11 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Scientists studied two proteins (one called CKIe and another called PERIOD) that help regulate timing in the body, and looked at how those proteins function in cells, said Forger. One of the proteins causes the other protein to degrade, and the body knows what time it is by how much or how little PERIOD protein is present at any one time in the body. The body's clock is called a circadian rhythm.

Drug makers spend billions to develop drugs to help people with sleep disorders, and other disorders impacted by our biological clocks. Drugs to restore a healthy circadian rhythm by manipulating the levels of PERIOD proteins are currently under development.

One such sleep disorder is called Familial Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome and this is caused by a gene mutation, Forger said. Patients suffering from the disease routinely wake very early, say at 4 a.m. and must go to bed early, at say 7 p.m. said Forger.

If put in a cave with no light, these people should have a shortened day, Forger said. This means that on our time, they would wake the first day at say, 6 a.m. then at 4 a.m. then at 2 a.m. on subsequent days.

"When they have light and dark cycles in the normal world, they pretty much have to live in a 24-hour day," Forger said. "They were able to adjust but the price they have to pay is their body wakes up early, and they have to go to bed earlier than we do."

"The theory was that the mutation caused (more of the PERIOD protein) so you get a short day so you want to get up very early in the morning," Forger said. But, during testing they found the opposite is true: the mutation actually caused the PERIOD to degrade more quickly so that less is present in the body.

The finding wasn't a complete surprise to Forger, who develops math models of the circadian rhythms. Forger's computer models always said that the opposite of the prevailing thinking should be true---that the PERIOD protein should degrade more quickly when the mutation is present.

"I had this prediction for a year or two," Forger said. "Basically, people said this is ridiculous, you're a mathematician, what do you know…"

Then he met David Virshup, M.D., while giving an invited talk at the University of Utah. Virshup's previous research was on the gene involved in circadian rhythms and its role in cancer development. Their experiments had also suggested that genetic mutation caused the protein to degrade more quickly. Virshup suggested they test Forger's simulation.

The researchers took cell cultures and observed that for those with the mutated gene, the protein only took a couple hours to degrade. For the normal gene, it took 8-10 hours.

Next, Virshup said, his team will begin testing ways to regulate the circadian rhythm in mice, a necessary step before new drugs can be developed.



Publication: July 11 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
On the web: www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0604511103 

Advertise in this space for $10 per month. Contact us today.


Related Sleep Disorders News
Sleep loss can cause testosterone levels to plummet
Snoring due to sleep apnea can damage brain severely
Meditation may be effective for treating insomnia
Caffeine may prevent risk taking after sleep deprivation
Surgical weight loss does not eliminate sleep apnea
Sleep disturbances among the elderly linked to suicide
Slow wave activity during sleep is lower in African-Americans
Reduced sleep quality can aggravate psychological conditions
Imagery rehearsal therapy improves sleep
Extended Shifts for Medical Interns Negatively Impact Patient Safety

Subscribe to Sleep Disorders Newsletter

Enter your email address:


 Additional information about the news article
Funding for the study was provided by the National Institutes of health, the Huntsman Cancer Institute and the Sloan Foundation.
 Feedback
For any corrections of factual information, to contact the editors or to send any medical news or health news press releases, use feedback form

Top of Page

 
Contact us

RxPG Online

Nerve

 

    Full Text RSS

© All rights reserved by RxPG Medical Solutions Private Limited (India)