Microbiota as a trigger factor for narcolepsy

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K08540
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Environmental physiology(including physical medicine and nutritional physiology)
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science
• Principal Investigator: KODAMA Tohru 公益財団法人東京都医学総合研究所, 精神行動医学研究分野, シニア研究員 (20195746)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 渡辺 正孝 公益財団法人東京都医学総合研究所, 認知症・高次脳機能研究分野, 特任研究員 (50092383) ; 本多 真 公益財団法人東京都医学総合研究所, 精神行動医学研究分野, プロジェクトリーダー (50370979)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 腸内細菌 / ナルコレプシー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Many researches have been conducted on factors that cause dysfunction of orexin cells, but, it has not succeeded to explain the whole picture. Focusing on the close association of the intestinal flora with immunity and metabolism, we examined the possibility that the intestinal flora might form the basic condition for expression of narcolepsy. We analyzed the bacterial flora from 74 outpatients at Seiwa Hospital. [24 cases of narcolepsy group; 32 cases of developmental disorder group (10 cases of ADHD); 18 cases of other sleep disorder].
Cluster analysis was used to investigate differences in intestinal flora between 7 cases of narcolepsy and 13 controls. The Narcolepsy group and the control group tended to be divided into two different clusters. Principal component analysis indicated that Bifidobacterium, Clostridium cluster IV and XIVa groups are the main contributing factors. It was found that the narcolepsy group tends to have abundant bifidobacteria.

Free Research Field

睡眠科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ナルコレプシーの病態であるオレキシン細胞の機能不全を引き起こす要因に関して多くの研究が進められているが、全体像を説明するには至っていない。我々は腸内細菌叢が免疫・代謝と密接に関連することに着目、ナルコレプシー患者においても腸内細菌叢がその発現基盤を形作っている可能性について検討した。本研究に於いてナルコレプシー患者群で特異的な腸内細菌群が明らかになり、今後のナルコレプシーの病態解明と治療への足がかりになるものと考えられる。