New drug reverses effects of sleep deprivation on brain

[DemsUnite]

New drug reverses effects of sleep deprivation on brain

This new drug would be a breakthrough in helping shift workers, health professionals, military personnel and others who must function at top performance in spite of sleep deficits.

"In addition to improving performance under normal conditions, the drug restored performance that was impaired after sleep loss," said Samuel Deadwyler, Ph.D., senior researcher, from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. "Brain imaging revealed that one basis for the drug's effects was to reverse changes in brain patterns induced by sleep deprivation."

The study's results are reported on-line today in the journal Public Library of Science- Biology. The drug, currently known as CX717, is designed to act on a type of receptor located throughout the brain that is involved in cell-to-cell communication. It has been tested in sleep-deprived humans with positive results, according to the developer, Cortex Pharmaceuticals.

The Wake Forest research was funded by the U.S. Department of Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, as part of a larger effort to mitigate or eliminate the effect of sleep deprivation on military personnel, and by the National Institutes of Health. In addition to Deadwyler, the research team included Linda J. Porrino, Ph.D., James Daunais, Ph.D., Robert Hampson, Ph.D., from the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Wake Forest, and Gary Rogers from Cortex Pharmaceuticals.

more

http://www.eitb24.com/noticia_en.php?id=84155

[ret5hd]

1. all towards the goal of a bigger better more efficient killing machine (nt

[Fovea]

2. A new drug that corporatists will love.

Work harder, work longer, work cheaper.

[DBoon]

3. I know places that would look the other way

while this stuff was abused in the workplace, to get people working longer hours.

[Double T]

4. Mandatory injections will start to be given at all US corporate and..

company facilities starting immediately. Increased profits are much more important than a persons need for sleep so we will forgo the latter. The corporate goal is to keep you awake 24/7 to increase productivity.

[KittyWampus]

44. do you think the corporate CEO's will go first?

[Nite Owl]

5. Oh great

longer hours for less pay. Maybe it could save on rent, who needs a place to sleep anymore, just give yourself to the workplace.

[genieroze]

6. Gimme, gimme, I want some. /sarcasm

[HuckleB]

7. This is still somewhat early in the research process.

A more thorough article on the study can be found here:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=29534

Certainly, long term use must be studied, uh, long and long and hard, IMHO. And there are big ethical questions regarding the use of such medication for keeping people on the job. Looking to the medication as possible treatment for dementia is one thing, but tossing off sleep in otherwise healthy people is another.

[punpirate]

17. The military is interested in this for...

... combat pilots. Longer missions, fly more frequently, get more out of each combat pilot. Last I read of this, researchers were saying they could keep people awake with the drug for as long as 88 hours.

I'd be very curious to know what a person's mental state was at the end of those extended sleepless periods, and what happens to sleep patterns after finally getting to sleep. It's also a bit difficult to get monkeys to verbalize how they feel....

[LeighAnn]

37. "...It has been tested in sleep-deprived humans with positive results"

I wonder if they tested this on the guests we're keeping Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib...

[KittyWampus]

45. I wonder what the short and long term side effects would be.

[Julius Civitatus]

8. Say hello to the 120 hr. work week!!!!

:wow:

No time to sleep, you lazy bum! Get back to work!

NOW!!!!

And take your mandatory injection of CX717 with your morning latte!

[mom cat]

23. Oops! Forgot to mention those pesky side effects!

[wli]

24. I've been there for a while already. n/t

[Javaman]

9. Okay, so instead of living to 75, you live to 50 with no sleep...

Oh that's sooooooooo much better.

[B3Nut]

11. Who needs sleep...

well you're never gonna get it
who needs sleep
tell me what's that for
who needs sleep
be happy with what you're getting
there's guys been awake since the second world war

Gotta love BNL :D

Todd in Beerbratistan

[leveymg]

13. The replicants also lived short, "glorious" lives as superhumans

in Blade Runner. Until they discovered their rather premature mortality - at which point, they went on a killing spree against Dr. Tyrell and the people on earth who had created and exploited them.

[bmcatt]

10. Isn't the best drug called

"a good night's sleep"? :banghead:

[HuckleB]

12. But, but no sleep is all about freedom, dontcha know?

;)

[Tempest]

14. Stop gap drug

Eventually the brain will reject the drug and then psychosis will set in.

U.S. soldiers are already coming back from Iraq with mental issues. This will compound the problem.

[arikara]

22. My thoughts exactly...

They'll test this on a few unfortunate mice and monkeys for a couple of weeks then pronounce it to be totally safe. If they go far enough with the testing to find out that it causes problems to their mice, that part will of course be buried away. They won't even test it on people and when the military start using it there's bound to be some awful repercussions with psychosis.

[Robeson]

15. Pentagon says: Give us some! Give us some!

[mccoyn]

16. Caffine?

"In addition to improving performance under normal conditions, the drug restored performance that was impaired after sleep loss"

"The drug is designed to act on a type of receptor located throughout the brain that is involved in cell-to-cell communication."

That sounds like a good description of caffine to me.

[oscar111]

19. at Wake Forest, or Wake-Up Forest?

[Sequoia]

26. Wake Forest in NC?

But you're funnier.

[oscar111]

35. wake forest college is in the OP, bottom of the clipping

see the OP for the mention.

dont know if it is is NC.

know little about WF.

thanks for the nice words

[soda]

18. cx717

i guess the name cocaine lite or soma had already been taken

[oscar111]

21. 5 days no sleep,kills healthy dogs

spanish military study allued to by a vet in an online forum

could not find the source article, perhaps you can

[slay]

20. This is scary - they'll want us working 80 hour weeks now

I think I'll pass. :scared:

[shadowknows69]

25. I remeber taking this stuff in the 80's

i think we called it speed back then

[katty]

27. How about promoting a healthy sleeping patterns?!

[wiley]

28. What else does that receptor do?

Research conducted by the "military" on humans. Who gets to see the actual client level data?

[William Bloode]

29. They already have drugs that do this.

They are known as cocaine and amphetamines. It would work just like coke binging. You may be able to go without sleep and function, but it is going to catch up with you before it's all over with. Your body needs sleep, and if you deprive it of said sleep to long it has bad repercussions.

[HuckleB]

32. Please explain how this drug compares to the drugs you mention...

in action and function on the brain.

Thanks.

[William Bloode]

34. Pretty simple...

Coke and speed work to keep you up, and work ok for a few days. You can remain sharp and focused, if your not too tweaked out. The only thing coke and speed do that this new drug does is give you a nice buzz for your efforts. If i was forced to stay awake for a few days, i would prefer to have the nice buzz as well.

And for those of you that don't know Coke used to be used for just that in the South many yrs ago. It was given to poor laborers black and white (mostly black) to allow them to work longer hours and work much harder. In fact native Peruvians still chew coca leaf and lime for the same purpose.

[HuckleB]

39. So you don't know how this drug works?

Why didn't you just say that?

[William Bloode]

47. Because,

Regardless of my knowledge of brain chemistry, i do know how the other drugs work from first hand experience. I have a lot of knowledge of going for days without sleep and staying awake artificially. My original point was not made about how the drugs work, but the consequences of using drugs to delay sleep. The fact remains that no matter how you fool the brain into thinking it's o.k. to go without sleep, there are dire consequences in the end. You can never regain sleep you have lost no matter how you try.

[HuckleB]

48. Alas, generalizing from one drug class to another does not provide...

for an increase in knowledge, nor does it forward the conversation.

[truthisfreedom]

30. i tend to have to work late nights for my business. i wouldn't mind a

drug like this once in a while if it actually works and has no other effects. some days i need to work until 6 am on a project, then have a meeting at 10 am. i'm sure a lot of other business owners face the same problem. sometimes i'm just not on a normal schedule because i tend to be much more creative in the silence of late-night, with positively zero chance of interruption. no distractions!

[Redstone]

31. Where can I get some of that?

Sleep is such a waste of time. Somany other things I could be doing...

Redstone

[drhilarius]

33. I work from 11p-7am...

then i go to school! I need to get this stuff stat!

[oscar111]

36. RESTRUCTURE JOBS and no one will need this

RESTRUCTURE JOBS is a main concept...

for progressves designing a better world.

many jobs now overwork the folks.

shorten hours of strenuous jobs.. and similar changes

[bdot]

38. Next $100 Million lawsuit coming right up.

A new drug means in a few years someone will sue for some reason and win. These drug companies should just quick making new drugs cause all it takes is 1 person to have a bad reaction and down the drain it goes.

[ret5hd]

50. yeah, i feel so sorry for big pharma too...

it is hell to be so unjustly persecuted.
(do i really need the sarcasm smiley, or can you figure it out?)

[bemildred]

40. "You can never change just one thing." nt

[Coventina]

41. Uh, wasn't this an episode of the "X-Files"?

Sounds like a BAD idea to me.

[reprobate]

42. Can you see a combat pilot after being up for several days on this?

It could add new meaning to the word'fragging'.

[jbnow]

43. It's more then a joke

When I read subject line I thought pf Provigil, first prescribed for narcolepsy, but called helpful for the same conditions as this one.

They are not like speed, coke or caffeine. They are trying to find something that works on wakefulness with the least physical or psychological impact, no high. Just awake.

I know this can be misused, but for those with narcolepsy or neurological fatigue like MS it could be life changing, life restoring. Provigil has some issues and hopefully this will have less. It will probably have the same crazy price problem though, largely un-affordable to those without insurance in the US.

Provigil (alertec) costs 3 times as much in the US as it does in Canada.

[HuckleB]

49. Good post.

[hyphenate]

46. Hmmmm

I wonder if it could bring better sleep to those of us who live daily with the effects of both fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. One of the catalysts for both FMS and CFIDs is the inability of the body to go to a restorative sleep stage like most people. It is during that sleep stage where muscles, tendons and other torn body tissue is repaired by the body. With both these illnesses, the inability to reach that stage compromises the body's ability to repair such damage, often leaving these groups with no way to receive the proper restoration. Research shows that as a result, there remain many small tears in muscles, tendons and ligaments which leads to greater pain and often exacerbation of previous injuries.

I still don't think I would want a resident with 4 hours of sleep in a 36 hour period to determine a life or death decision for me in an emergency room.