Narcolepsy Mysteries Unravel
May 4, 2009 by Peggy Rowland
Filed under Women's Health
Though I’ve sometimes experienced insomnia, the sleep disorder on the other end of the spectrum, narcolepsy, is foreign, though intriguing, to me. I recently came across a new study that sheds some light on the cause of the disorder.
Narcolepsy affects about one in 2,000 people, and researchers are coming closer to understanding this disease characterized by daytime drowsiness, irregular sleep at night and a sudden loss of muscle tone and strength.
According to researchers at Stanford, Narcolepsy is an auto-immune disease.
The new study was published online at Nature Genetics.
The researchers discovered that a specific variation of a gene belonging to T cells (specialized immune cells that play a role in all immune responses) was present in narcolepsy. Because T cells appear to be involved, researchers believe that the mechanism behind narcolepsy stems from the immune system.
“If we can work out what happens specifically in patients with narcolepsy, we’ll be able to better understand the role of T cells in other autoimmune diseases that are more complicated and difficult to detect,” said Dr. Emmanuel Mignot, a lead researcher in the narcolepsy study.
Do you have experience with narcolepsy?
(Image via stock.xchng)
