A Leap Forward, but Hurdles Remain in Narcolepsy

   According to the New York Times findings on this article, narcolepsy was first described over 125 years ago. This occurs when a lack of a neurochemical called hypocretin is found causing this sleep disorder. Patients are missing most of the brain cells that make the wakefulness-promoting protein due to effects of narcolepsy. Classic narcolepsy symptoms are a combination of irresistible sleepiness and sudden collapses from muscle weakness
   Although, there are two new medications produced in the last decade, there still is no cure for the correction of their hypocretin deficiency. Researchers are now trying to answer the most important question for these patients, "What destroys the hypocretin-producing neurons in the first place"? According to a neurologist at Harvard Medical School, he mentions that we know now the cellular abnormality but still not the cause of it. Other researchers have said for it to be, the sense of the immune system attacking itself and killing the hypocretin neurons. The reason for this theory is the fact that many years ago case studies showed that a large amount of narcoleptics carry a gene variant for an immune defense protein called H.L.A. In controversial matter, many healthy people have this genetic marker as well.
   Scientists and researchers are now examining that the loss of cells that make hypocretin does not explain all cases of narcolepsy which affects about 1 in 2,000 people. Most patients struggle through daytime drowsiness and nod off at inopportune moments, about a quarter to half of patients do not even experience the attacks of muscle weakness or loss of muscle tone often triggered by pleasant emotions such as laughter or other strong emotions.

  It is interesting how narcolepsy is characterized as partially genetically contributed as well as environmentally affected illness. This disorder has progressed increasingly throughout the last few years on understanding the diagnosis at early adolescence and its prognosis with treatments. Although, there is not a known cure yet I am confident there will be some type of solution in the nearby future. Breakthrough treatments started in 1999 of a wakefulness-promoting drug called "modafinil" followed by sedative sodium oxybate in 2002. There is a future for narcoleptics, with treatment now and days, patients can attend school, work and have a social life. Already, a new drug in the making called "histamine H3 receptor blockers are being tested on narcoleptic patients. There's even a hypocretin nasal spray developing at the Wake Forest University to ultimately revive the brain activity in sleep-deprived monkeys, its progress is keeping the monkeys awake for 30 hours straight!

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