Can Resetting Your Body Clock Help Prevent Dementia?

Alarm clockPoor sleep, especially in midlife, has been associated with an increased risk of developing dementia.We aren’t sure exactly why the two appear to be linked, though, and it can be very hard to unpick whether it’s an early symptom of Alzheimer’s vs an actual cause of it.New research, however, has found that turning off a circadian (related to the sleep-wake cycle) protein in mice reduced their levels of tau protein, the accumulation of which in the brain is linked to dementia. It also seemed to raise their nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD+, levels, associated with increased protection against dementia. Why might your body clock be linked to dementia? In the experiment, published in the journal Nature Ageing, scientists genetically removed a circadian protein called REV-ERBα in two groups of mice.REV-ERBα, which helps to regulate our sleep-wake cycle and inflammation levels, also appears to control our NAD+ levels (the coenzyme we mentioned earlier, which seems to counteract the changes linked to dementia). In one of the groups of mice, they deleted REV-ERBα proteins across their entire body.In another group, the deletion only happened in astrocytes – star-shaped cells which make up a large part of the nervous system and help to support our brains.For both groups of mice, the change led to increased NAD+ levels.Speaking to WashU Medicine about a separate paper published in Nature Neuroscience, Dr Erik S. Musiek, who was involved in both studies, said: “There are 82 genes that have been associated with Alzheimer’s disease risk, and we found that the circadian rhythm is controlling the activity of about half of those.“Knowing that a lot of these Alzheimer’s genes are being regulated by the circadian rhythm gives us the opportunity to find ways to identify therapeutic treatments to manipulate them and prevent the progression of the disease.”What might this mean?In the Nature Ageing paper, the researchers ran further studies that involved a combination of both the genetic deletion of REV-ERBα and a promising new medicine. This appeared to increase NAD+ levels. The researchers suggest that inhibiting the protein may be more useful at certain stages of dementia, like early on when tau tangles are forming, than others.“Our studies shed light on crucial neuroprotective mechanisms mediated by REV-ERBα in astrocytes and should help guide ongoing drug development efforts to target REV-ERBα function in AD and other neurodegenerative diseases,” the paper reads.Related...Over-70s With This Hobby May Be 39% Less Likely To Develop DementiaHere's When 'Restless' Sleep Can Be A Dementia 'Warning Sign'Scientists Think These Brain Changes May Link Insomnia To Dementia

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