New Drug Replaces Sleep
Orexin-A is a naturally occurring, highly excitatory, chemical released by the hypothalamus. Orexin-A eliminate the signs and symptoms found in individuals who have sleep deprivation. Orexin A thus far has shown no negative side effects. The benefits of this drug include an improved cognitive ability and dramatic improvement in function of sleep deprived patients who are performing complicated tasks. Orexin A improves alertness, attention, and muscle tone. If Orexin A is given to people who have had a normal amount of sleep,it has no noticeable effects. The drug is fairly new and it has been studied mostly on animals.
Usually Orexin A (also called hypocretin-1)is given as a nasal spray. Orexin A was administered to sleep-deprived (for 36 hours) rhesus monkeys immediately preceding testing on short-term memory task. The memory task was made complicated to effectively measure the effects produced by sleep deprivation. Orexin-A was given either by intravenous injections or nasal delivery with an atomizer spray mist to the nostrils. Orexin-A delivered by the intravenous and nasal routes significantly improved performance in sleep-deprived monkeys; however, the nasal delivery method was significantly more effective than the highest dose of intravenous orexin-A tested. The improvement in performance by orexin-A was most noticeable when the tests involved difficult mental tasks. For the most part, orexin-A had little effect on normal (non-sleep-deprived) animals. The nasal route of delivery of orexin-A was more effective for reversal of signs of sleep deprivation than intravenous orexin-A. These findings provide strong evidence for the effectiveness of intranasal orexin-A in preventing the problems associated with loss of sleep.
ref:
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/52/14239
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocretin
