• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Sunday, January 29, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

Unraveling the mysteries of sleep disorders in multiple system atrophy

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 7, 2021
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

New study shows that in multiple system atrophy, sleep disorders are a common but scarcely studied symptom associated with disease severity

IMAGE

Credit: Pexels

Unusual diseases are medical mysteries that fascinate us, and one such disease is multiple system atrophy, or MSA. This rare neurological disorder causes failures in the proper functioning of the body’s autonomic system (processes that are not under our conscious control, such as blood pressure, breathing, and involuntary movement). The resulting symptoms can look like two other types of neurodegenerative disease: Parkinson’s disease and cerebellar ataxia. In fact, MSA can be separated into a parkinsonism subtype or a cerebellar subtype based on whether the resultant movement-related symptoms bear greater similarity to one or the other. However, MSA also has other symptoms, with sleep disorders being common, but under-researched. As a result, we understand very little about the factors that influence the presence of sleep disorders in patients with MSA. Being unable to sleep well makes life harder for these patients, who already suffer from the other symptoms of the condition; as such, emphasizing sleep disturbances is important for addressing patient needs.

With this in mind, researchers led by Dr. Hui-Fang Shang of Sichuan University in China set out to investigate three specific sleep disorders (Parkinson’s disease related sleep problems [PD-SP], excessive daytime sleepiness [EDS], and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder [RBD]) in patients with MSA. Dr. Shang explains, “Our goal was to determine the frequency of these three sleep disturbances in MSA, including in both subtypes. We also wanted to know whether sleep disorders affected how severe MSA was.” Their findings have been published in Chinese Medical Journal.

After screening for MSA and excluding other neurological disorders, the researchers examined 165 patients using questionnaires to determine the presence of sleep-related symptoms and MSA severity. Dr. Shang and colleagues found that PD-SP occurred in 18.8% of patients, EDS in 27.3%, and RBD in 49.7%, whereas all three coexisted in 7.3% of patients. They also showed that PD-SP and EDS, but not RBD, were more common in the parkinsonism subtype than in the cerebellar subtype. Their analysis adjusted for patient age, duration of MSA, and usage of drug treatment for MSA, meaning these three factors did not help explain the differences in sleep disorders across the two MSA subtypes. They also found that male sex was associated with EDS and RBD in patients with MSA.

And most importantly, greater the number of these sleep-related symptoms a patient had, more severe their MSA was.

When the researchers combined their findings with results from previous brain imaging studies that looked at MSA and sleep disorders, they concluded that sleep disorders are associated with MSA-induced damage to certain regions of the brain. The location and distribution of degenerating neurons are different between the two subtypes, with a wider range of brain areas affected in the parkinsonism form. This could explain why patients with the parkinsonism subtype have more sleep disorders. Additionally, the connection between MSA severity and increased number of sleep-related symptoms could reflect the amount of neuronal damage. Because sleep disorders are associated with loss of dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic neurons (that is, neurons producing the neurotransmitter chemical dopamine), the results shed some light on the underlying biological causes of MSA.

“For me, this research emphasizes the need to focus more on sleep disorders when treating patients with MSA,” says Dr. Shang , explaining the scientific and clinical contributions of their work, “We are the first to perform such a systematic analysis of sleep-related symptoms in MSA, and any future research can build on what we did here to better understand this serious condition. Currently, MSA has no cure, so a greater emphasis on sleep disorders will help do two things: address the lower quality of life in these patients due to disturbed sleep, and provide scientific data for developing effective treatments.”

The findings provide hope for a more holistic approach to improving patients’ quality of life.

###

Reference

Title of original paper: Sleep-related symptoms in multiple system atrophy: determinants and impact on disease severity

Journal: Chinese Medical Journal

DOI: 10.1097/CM9.0000000000001211

Media Contact
Peifang Wei
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/cm9.0000000000001211

Tags: BiologyCell BiologyDiagnosticsMedicine/HealthMolecular BiologyneurobiologyNeurochemistryParkinson
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Katerina Mastovska

Dr. Katerina Mastovska named AOAC INTERNATIONAL Deputy Executive Director and Chief Science Officer

January 27, 2023
magnetar eruption

Volcano-like rupture could have caused magnetar slowdown

January 27, 2023

Stability of perovskite solar cells reaches next milestone

January 27, 2023

From AI software to surgical robots

January 27, 2023
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Jean du Terrail, Senior Machine Learning Scientist at Owkin

    Nature Medicine publishes breakthrough Owkin research on the first ever use of federated learning to train deep learning models on multiple hospitals’ histopathology data

    64 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • First made-in-Singapore antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) approved to enter clinical trials

    58 shares
    Share 23 Tweet 15
  • Metal-free batteries raise hope for more sustainable and economical grids

    41 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • One-pot reaction creates versatile building block for bioactive molecules

    37 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

World-first guidelines created to help prevent heart complications in children during cancer treatment

Simulations reproduce complex fluctuations in soft X-ray signal detected by satellites

Measles virus ‘cooperates’ with itself to cause fatal encephalitis

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 42 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In