New data further points to a connection between poor sleep and Alzheimer’s disease, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.
The FDA-approved insomnia pill known as suvorexant (under the brand Belsomra) was seen to reduce harmful proteins associated with the disease in subjects who took it before bed, the team reported. They added that sleep disturbances can be a major, early warning sign of the neurodegenerative illness.
Although the study was small and only conducted over a two-night span, it shows “proof-of-concept,” said senior author Dr. Brendan Lucey of the university’s sleep center.
“We don’t yet know whether long-term use is effective in staving off cognitive decline, and if it is, at what dose and for whom. Still, these results are very encouraging,” Lucey added.
“This drug is already available and proven safe, and now we have evidence that it affects the levels of proteins that are critical for driving Alzheimer’s disease.”
Lucey and his team were among the first to connect poor sleep with the accumulation of beta-amyloid peptide and tau proteins in the brain — two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Patients between ages 45 to 65 with no cognitive impairments were given different doses of the sleep aid and, through a spinal tap, had their cerebrospinal fluid analyzed for levels of the two proteins.
“In the cerebrospinal fluid of people who had received the high dose of suvorexant, amyloid levels dropped 10% to 20% and levels of a key form of tau known as hyperphosphorylated tau dropped 10% to 15%, compared to people who had received placebo,” the university reported.
Lucey says that daily reductions of the proteins could bolster long-term neurological health.
“If we can lower amyloid every day, we think the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain will decrease over time,” said the doctor, who added that reducing tau proteins that produce tangles in the brain would lead to “less neuronal death.”
Although more in-depth research is needed, Lucey is optimistic about what the current results might mean for the future.
“I’m hopeful that we will eventually develop drugs that take advantage of the link between sleep and Alzheimer’s to prevent cognitive decline . . . At this point, the best advice I can give is to get a good night’s sleep if you can, and if you can’t, to see a sleep specialist and get your sleep problems treated,” Lucey said.
However, there are dangers that persist with the long-term usage of sleeping pills — particularly in older adults. A January study out of the University of California, San Francisco, found that “frequent sleep medication use was associated with an increased risk of dementia,” especially in elderly white adults.
This news also follows a “remarkable” breakthrough on reversing Alzheimer’s from scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who designed a peptide to treat a hyperactive enzyme often associated with the disease.