Toward understanding the mechanism that mediates the bidirectional relationship between sleep disturbance and neurodegeneration

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26860681
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neurology
• Research Institution: National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Minakawa Eiko 国立研究開発法人国立精神・神経医療研究センター, 神経研究所 疾病研究第四部, 流動研究員 (20726252)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 睡眠障害 / 中途覚醒 / 神経変性疾患 / 認知症 / アルツハイマー病

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Sleep disturbance (SD), especially sleep fragmentation, is a common symptom among patients of neurodegenerative diseases. Although recent epidemiological studies have suggested a bidirectional relationship between SD and neurodegeneration, whether SD similar to the patients aggravates neurodegeneration remains to be elucidated mainly due to technical limitations in producing relevant animal models. Here we successfully induced chronic sleep fragmentation in a mouse model of neurodegenerative disease and demonstrate that the severity of brain pathology in this mouse line exhibits a significant positive correlation with the extent of sleep fragmentation.

Free Research Field

神経内科学