Drug Reverses Sleep Deprivation Effects

Studies with laboratory monkeys suggests that a newly developed drug can in the short term reverse effects of sleep deprivation on the brain, which would be beneficial to problem sleepers as well as clinicians, military personnel, and others who must work at top performance levels despite being sleepy.

"In addition to improving performance under normal conditions, the drug restored performance that was impaired after sleep loss,” said Samuel Deadwyler, Ph.D., senior researcher, from Wake Forest University School of Medicine (Winston-Salem, NC, USA). "Brain imaging revealed that one basis for the drug's effects was to reverse changes in brain patterns induced by sleep deprivation.”

The study's findings were published in the online August 28, 2004, issue of the journal Public Library of Science-Biology. The drug, currently known as CX717, is designed to act on a type of receptor located throughout the brain that is involved in cell-to-cell communication. It has been tested in sleep-deprived humans with encouraging results, according to the developer, Cortex Pharmaceuticals (Irvine, CA, USA).

The drug, known as an ampakine, was developed to target AMPA receptors throughout the brain that are part of the cellular communication mechanism involving the neurotransmitter glutamate. The drug prolongs the action of glutamate, allowing more effective communication. Researchers utilized positron emission tomography (PET) to capture images of brain activity while monkeys were performing a matching task. These scans showed that the drug was able to reverse most of the alterations in activity patterns that occurred with sleep deprivation.

The PET images showed that when the monkeys were performing a task while sleep-deprived, activity in the frontal cortex, a region of the brain linked to higher mental processing, decreased and activity in the temporal lobe, associated with memory for recent events, increased. The scientists believe that this might be the brain's way of compensating for the effects of sleep deprivation. After the drug was administered, the brain patterns in these regions returned to normal.





Related Links:
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Cortex Pharmaceuticals