Brain-based immune proteins may regulate sleep

Sleep may be regulated in parts by several brain-based immune proteins, says a study that could pave the way for new therapies to treat chronic sleepdisorders and sleep disturbances secondary to other diseases. The immune proteins — collectively called inflammasome NLRP3 — recruit a sleep-inducing molecule to trigger somnolence following sleep deprivation and exposure to a bacterial toxin, showed results of the study published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. Animals lacking genes for this protective immune complex showed profound sleep aberrations. “Our research points, for the first time,…

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