Novel compound could lead to new therapy for narcolepsy

Written by Alice Weatherston

New research, published recently in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, has highlighted the successful development of a compound that could be used in the treatment of the sleep disorder narcolepsy. The compound, which has so far been tested in animal models, functions through mimicking the action of the wake-promoting neuropeptide, orexin, within the brain. The molecule was originally discovered and highlighted as playing a key role in maintaining wakefulness in 1998 by Masashi Yanagisawa (University of Tsukuba), one of the lead authors on the current paper, and deficiencies in orexin have been linked to narcolepsy. Despite orexin being proven as...

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