Thirty-eight people participated in a study investigating the effects of sleeping pills on Alzheimer’s-related proteins in cerebrospinal fluid. The tablets have shown promise in combating substances that lead to harmful tangles and plaques in the brain that contribute to the disease, but a larger, more comprehensive study is needed to confirm the results. research is needed.
Catch-22 is known to play a small role in sleep and Alzheimer’s disease. Poor sleep patterns have been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease, which can disrupt sleep years before symptoms of cognitive decline appear. , is associated with the accumulation of tau and amyloid beta. Tau and amyloid beta are proteins that form plaques and tangles in the brain that damage neurons and lead to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Interested in investigating whether sleeping pills might reduce the impact of insomnia on the development of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine divided 38 study participants into three groups and gave them two nights of sleeplessness. conducted a sleep study. The first group, controls, did not receive any medication. A second group received a low dose of suvorexant (10 mg). This is an insomnia drug that blocks orexin, a molecule in the body that naturally wakes us up. A third group received a higher dose of suvorexant (20 mg).
Throughout the study, participants removed a small amount of cerebrospinal fluid every two hours, which probably didn’t make for a very restful night. found that levels of a type of tau known as hyperphosphorylated tau were reduced by 10-15%, and amyloid levels were reduced by 10-20%. Neither protein showed a statistically significant reduction in the low-dosed medication group.
Despite the potential use of suvorexant suggested here, the researchers believe that this is a very small study and not as any sort of validation that the drug can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. It is made clear that it was used for that purpose only.
“This is a small proof-of-concept study,” said senior author Brendan Rousey, associate professor of neurology and director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at the University of Washington. As a reason to start taking suvorexant every night. Whether long-term use is effective in halting cognitive decline, and if so, at what doses and for whom, remains to be seen. The drug is already available and proven to be safe, and there is now evidence that it affects the levels of a protein important in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Also, when the sleeping pills started to wear off, the tau and amyloid levels returned to their previous levels, so continuing to take sleeping pills to keep them knocked back is clearly not an effective long-term strategy. It’s worth pointing out that the study participants were all healthy middle-aged adults, so further studies are planned for other populations, including the elderly. We hope that future research into both groups of people and the long-term effects of nighttime use of orexin inhibitors will add to the growing body of research on fighting Alzheimer’s disease.
“We hope that the link between sleep and Alzheimer’s disease will eventually be used to develop drugs that prevent cognitive decline,” said Lucey. “We’re not quite there yet. At this point, the best advice I can give is to get a good night’s sleep if you can, or see a sleep specialist to treat your sleep problems. That’s it.”
The study was published in a journal Neurological Annals.
Source: University of Washington School of Medicine
