Latest news with #DavidHoltzman
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
FDA-Approved Sleeping Pill Slows Alzheimer's Tangles in Pre-Clinical Trial
A drug used to treat insomnia has protected mice against the buildup of the tau protein found to clump abnormally in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. This could lead to new ways to help slow the progress of these diseases. An increasing number of people are facing cognitive decline personally or in their loved ones. There are almost 10 million new cases of dementia globally each year, and despite decades of research, there are still few treatment options that provide clear benefits. So due to the links between Alzheimer's and poor sleep, Washington University neurologist Samira Parhizkar and colleagues investigated a central nervous system depressant, lemborexant, that was approved for use as a sleep aid by the FDA in December 2019. "We have shown that lemborexant improves sleep and reduces abnormal tau, which appears to be a main driver of the neurological damage that we see in Alzheimer's and several related disorders," explains Washington University neurologist David Holtzman. The role of amyloid beta proteins in Alzheimer's has been controversial, but they're not the only proteins implicated in the disease. Tau proteins normally contribute to the structure of brain cells, but past research has linked abnormal ones with the rate of brain atrophy in animal models. "The antibodies to amyloid that we now use to treat patients with early, mild Alzheimer's dementia are helpful, but they don't slow the disease down as much as we would like," says Holtzman. "We need ways to reduce the abnormal tau buildup and its accompanying inflammation, and this type of sleep aid is worth looking at further." But when the researchers compared lemborexant with another sleep aid, zolpidem, the results were unexpected. Mice receiving lemborexant retained up to 40 percent more volume in their memory-forming hippocampus than those who received zolpidem or no sleep aid at all. "What was surprising was that these effects were not seen with a standard sleep drug like zolpidem, which increases NREM sleep similarly to lemborexant," Parhizkar told Eric Dolan at PsyPost. "This suggests that the benefit is not just about more sleep, but rather how that sleep is promoted." The two sleep drugs work on different mechanisms, and that seems to be key to the protective effects. Lemborexant blocks orexin, a neuropeptide that regulates the sleep cycle, and when the team genetically knocked out orexin receptor 2 in mice, it reduced the buildup of tau in their brains. Strangely, though, the protective results of lemborexant were only seen in male mice, even though females were also tested. What's more, mouse studies don't always produce the same results in humans. Lemborexant has only been approved for short-term use in humans, so its long-term impacts as well as effectiveness in tau reduction still need to be investigated. While many questions remain to be answered, if the results seen in this study hold true, the researchers hope early intervention with a drug like lemborexant could potentially delay the progression of neurodegeneration. This research was published in Nature Neuroscience. Risk of Sleep Breathing Disorder Set to Rise 45% by End of Century Breakthrough: FDA Approves Injection to Prevent HIV Is It Gastro or Food Poisoning? Here's A Guide to Your Upset Stomach
Medical News Today
04-06-2025
- Health
- Medical News Today
Alzheimer's: Common insomnia treatment may prevent brain damage
Common insomnia treatment may prevent Alzheimer's-related brain damage, an animal study suggests. Image credit: ljubaphoto/Getty Images. As many as 70 million people around the world live with a sleep disorder. Sleep disorders can impact a person's risk for several health conditions, including dementia and Alzheimer's disease. A new study has found that a medication commonly used to treat insomnia may not only improve sleep quality, but also protect the brain from a buildup of the protein tau, via a mouse model. 'Poor sleep quality and sleep disorders often appear years before other symptoms of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease and related disorders become apparent,' David M. Holtzman, MD, the Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Distinguished Professor of Neurology and scientific director of the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders at the Washington University School of Medicine told Medical News Today . He is the senior author of a new study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience , which has found, via a mouse model, that a medication commonly used to treat insomnia may not only improve sleep quality, but also protect the brain from a buildup of the protein tau. For this study, researchers focused on a sleep disorder medication called lemborexant, sold under the brand name Dayvigo. 'Lemborexant belongs to a class of sleep medications called dual orexin receptor antagonists,' Samira Parhizkar, PhD, instructor at Washington University School of Medicine, and first author of this study, explained to MNT . 'These drugs work by blocking orexin — a protein in the brain that keeps us awake and alert.' 'By blocking the orexin signaling, the medication allows sleep to occur quickly and more easily,' Parhizkar continued. 'In other words, if your brain is like a light switch that keeps flicking on when you are trying to sleep, lemborexant helps turn that switch off, so your brain and body gets the rest it needs.' Scientists used lemborexant to treat a model of mice that were genetically prone to having tau buildup in the brain. 'In the healthy brain, tau protein acts as a 'track' that helps support the shape of cells and helps move nutrients and signals where they need to go,' Holtzman detailed. 'In Alzheimer's and a group of neurodegenerative disorders primarily affected by abnormal tau called tauopathies, abnormal tau loses its shape, integrity and therefore cellular functionality leading to tau tangles. The progressive build of these tau tangles leads to nerve cell death that contributes to memory loss, confusion among other cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer's disease,' he explained. At the study's conclusion, researchers found treating the mice with lemborexant helped to prevent the buildup of tau in the brain, reducing the inflammatory brain damage that tau buildup is known to cause in Alzheimer's disease. 'The detrimental increase of abnormal tau is closely associated with heightened inflammatory damage in the brain,' Parhizkar said. 'Research from our lab and others has demonstrated that inflammation in the brain is a significant factor contributing to the brain damage seen in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.' 'Consequently, by decreasing both the abnormal buildup of tau and inflammatory damage, lemborexant may be highly effective in safeguarding the brain from these sources of injury,' she added. Additionally, scientists discovered that mice treated with the sleep aid had a 30–40% larger hippocampus volume compared to those not treated with the medication. 'The larger hippocampal volume indicates reduced brain damage and cellular loss in mice treated with lemborexant compared to those given vehicle control,' Holtzman said. 'In the latter group, abnormal tau protein continued to accumulate in the brain, resulting in cell damage, death, and therefore shrinkage of the hippocampus typically observed with neurodegeneration.' MNT also had the opportunity to speak with Gary Small, MD, chair of psychiatry at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, about this study. Small, who was not involved in the current research, commented that the findings from this new study are consistent with previous research linking restful sleep with better cognitive health. 'For example, my research team found that sleep quality is related to both objective measures of sustained attention and self-awareness of memory decline, suggesting that interventions for improving sleep quality may contribute not only to improving the ability to focus on a particular task but also in reducing memory complaints,' he told us. 'Other work has shown that restful sleep reduces brain amyloid and inflammation, which may explain why sleep benefits cognition. The Washington University team now sheds additional light on an underlying link between insomnia and cognitive impairment: accumulation of tau protein, particularly in brain regions controlling memory,' Small added. 'Nearly 40% of people in the U.S. complain of insomnia, which can lead to daytime fatigue, memory issues, difficulty concentrating, anxiety, depression, irritability, and disrupted work and social activities. Available medicines may lead to dependency and pose such side effects as daytime drowsiness, dizziness, headache, unusual dreams, and memory problems. Finding innovative treatments that reduce tau accumulation in the brain and promote restful sleep would have the dual effect of combating Alzheimer's disease and chronic insomnia' Still, Small cautioned that, while '[t]his study is encouraging […] findings in an animal model must move forward to clinical trials of human volunteers to determine the safety and effectiveness of this potential treatment.' Alzheimer's / Dementia Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia Drugs
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Naoris Protocol Begins Token Sale for First Post-Quantum Infrastructure Layer
PORTO, Portugal, May 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Naoris Protocol, the first quantum-resistant architecture and blockchain, today opened its highly anticipated public sale for the $NAORIS token, following over 15,000 pre-registrations. The sale, which takes place on the Tokensoft platform and is accessible via the Naoris Protocol Website, begins today, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 08:00 UTC and will continue for seven days, ending on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. During this period, the $NAORIS token will be available for purchase. Pre-registering is not a requirement for the Public Sale, so anyone who wishes to participate will be able to purchase $NAORIS using ETH, USDT, or USDC. Participants who pre-registered via the whitelist were able to complete Naoris Protocol's Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process before the start of the sale event. Since launching on January 31, 2025, Naoris's post-quantum testnet has been an overwhelming success, processing more than 64 million post-quantum transactions, onboarding 2.1 million wallets, deploying 828,000+ security nodes, and mitigating 342 million cyber threats, making it the fastest-growing trust and security layer in Web3. David Carvalho, CEO and Founder of Naoris Protocol, says: "We experienced overwhelming demand for our pre-registration whitelist when it opened, which was very encouraging and gave us an indication of the interest in our protocol. The threat to cryptography from quantum computing is no longer distant or theoretical - it's on our doorstep, and the time to act is now. Naoris Protocol is the first-ever architecture that can easily integrate with any EVM-compatible blockchain and make transactions quantum-secure, as their security becomes more pressing every year." Naoris Protocol is led by industry experts and cyber pioneers and backed by advisors with decades of experience. These include David Holtzman, former CTO of IBM and architect of the DNS protocol; Ahmed Réda Chami, Ambassador for Morocco to the EU and former CEO of Microsoft North Africa; Mick Mulvaney, former White House Chief of Staff; and Inge Kampenes, former Major General (ret.) and former fighter pilot and Chief of Norwegian Armed Forces Cyber Defence. The protocol's architecture operates at the Sub-Zero Layer below layers L0 to L3, meaning it can seamlessly integrate to secure blockchain transactions, decentralized exchange (DEX) dApps, nodes, bridges, and other Web3 systems, without requiring hard forks or operational disruption. Beyond Web3, it is designed to secure a wide variety of systems, processes, and physical infrastructure in traditional Web2 sectors, from healthcare to defense. In addition, Naoris Protocol runs a fully quantum-resistant Layer 1 blockchain secured by its proprietary Proof-of-Security (dPoSec) consensus mechanism. Its security mesh is powered by post-quantum cryptography and decentralized AI, and aligned with emerging EU and US quantum standards like NIST, NATO & ETSI. In 2022, Naoris Protocol raised a total of $31 million, backed by well-known visionary leader, Tim Draper, and institutional investors such as the Holdun Family Office and CLS Global. About Naoris Protocol Naoris Protocol is the world's first Decentralized Post-Quantum Infrastructure, built to secure both Web3 and Web2 against traditional and quantum threats. Operating beneath blockchain layers 0 to 3 as a Sub-Zero Layer, it integrates with existing EVM chains, nodes, bridges, dApps, enterprise systems, and IoT devices without requiring hard forks. Naoris Protocol combines Post-Quantum Cryptography, dPoSec Consensus, and Decentralized Swarm AI to create a self-healing security mesh that eliminates single points of failure. Since launching in January 2025, it has processed over 64 million transactions and mitigated 341 million threats. Powered by the $NAORIS token, it is the fastest-growing trust and security layer for a quantum-resilient internet. To learn more about Naoris Protocol, users can visit ContactManaging DirectorAnna FedorovaBlock3 PRanna@ Photo - View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Naoris Protocol Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
