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Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have shown that the effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance can be reversed when the naturally occurring brain peptide, orexin-A is administered in monkeys. Their findings are published in the December 31, 2007, the Journal of Neuroscience.

"These results are significant because of their potential application," said Samuel A. Deadwyler, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest. "This could benefit patients suffering from narcolepsy and other severe sleep disorders, but also applicability to shift workers., Military, and many other occupations where sleep is often limited, but demand remains high cognitive. "

Orexin-A, also known as hypocretin-1 is a peptide naturally produced in the brain that regulates sleep. It is secreted by a small number of neurons but affects many brain regions during the day, and people who have normal amounts of orexin-A are able to maintain wakefulness. When people or animals are sleep-deprived brain is trying to produce more orexin-A, but often without success, enough to reach the final round vigilance normal day-night.

The research team, consisting of Linda Porrino, Ph.D., and Robert Hampson, Ph.D., also of Wake Forest, and Jerome Siegel, Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles, studied the effects of orexin-A on monkeys that were kept awake overnight for 30 to 36 hours of videos, music, treats, and interaction with technicians, until their normal testing. They were then allowed to perform their tasks trained with several cognitive problems that varied in difficulty and their performance was significantly affected.

monkeys, however, if sleep deprivation were administered orexin-A either intravenously or by nasal spray immediately prior to testing, improving their cognitive abilities to normal non-sleep deprived. The researchers also noted that when the monkeys received the orexin-A in the form of nasal spray they tested higher than when administered intravenously.

"Evaluations of the brain activity of monkey trials using noninvasive imaging techniques have shown an improvement in orexin-A, which returned to normal non-sleep deprived during the execution of task model, "said Deadwyler." In In addition, we observed that orexin-A at moderate dose has no effect on performance when the animals were deprived of sleep. "

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