A type of sleeping pill can fight Alzheimer’s disease

Now, however, a group of American researchers has come up with a solution that may be able to break the vicious cycle.

The prescription sleep aid suvorexant, sold under the name Belsomra, appears to reduce the buildup of harmful clumps of two types of proteins in the brain that have been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

More precisely, it is about amyloid and tau proteins.

This is clear from a study published in Annals of Neuroscience.

Although results so far suggest that the pill may slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, So the researchers indicated that they do not recommend it The sleeping pill is taken to prevent disease.

More studies are needed before the connection can be definitively established and a specific dose possibly recommended. The results also contradict previous research that indicated this Sleeping pills may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in certain groups of older adults.

samples every half hour

The researchers’ study lasted two nights and included 38 people between the ages of 45 and 65, who did not show signs of cognitive impairment and had not yet had sleep problems.

The researchers began their tests by taking samples of the participants’ cerebrospinal fluid.

An hour later, they gave the participants a high and low dose of suvorexant or a placebo, respectively.

Over the next 36 hours, the researchers continued to collect samples from the participants every two hours to measure how much the levels of the two proteins amyloid and tau had changed.

It had a clear effect

Based on the results, the researchers were able to read the clear effect of sleeping pills.

In the spinal fluid of people who received a high dose of suvorexant, levels of the amyloid protein decreased by 10-20 percent.

At the same time, the level of a specific type of tau protein, known as tau hyperphosphorylation, decreased by 10-15 percent.

There was no significant difference in protein levels between people who received a low dose of suvorexant and those who received a placebo.

According to the researchers’ findings, the concentrations of hyperphosphorylated tau increased again within 24 hours after taking the sleep aid, while the amyloid level remained low in the high-dose group compared to the placebo group.

When the researchers gave the high-dose group another dose on the second night of the experiment, levels of both types of protein dropped again.

The researchers hope that future studies will show whether treatment with sleep aids has a lasting effect on protein levels in the brain – and thus potentially suppresses or slows the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.