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The Raelian Movement
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Body clock drugs could ease psychiatric disorders and jet lag
http://www.physorg.com/news201781422.html
August 23, 2010
UK researchers have successfully used a drug to reset and restart the
natural 24 hour body clock of mice in the lab. The ability to do this
in a mammal opens up the possibility of dealing with a range of human
difficulties including some psychiatric disorders, jet lag and the
health impacts of shift work.
This work is led by Professor Andrew Loudon from the University of
Manchester and Dr Mick Hastings of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular
Biology in Cambridge, working with a multi-disciplinary team of
scientists from Pfizer led by Dr Travis Wager, and is published today
in PNAS.
Professor Loudon said "It can be really devastating to our brains and
bodies when something happens to disrupt the natural rhythm of our
body clocks. This can be as a result of disease or as a consequence of
jet lag or frequent changing between day and night shifts at work.
"We've discovered that we can control one of the key molecules
involved in setting the speed at which the clock ticks and in doing so
we can actually kick it into a new rhythm."
Most living creatures and plants have an internal body timing system -
called the circadian clock. This is a complex system of molecules in
every cell that drives the rhythmicity of everything from sleep in
mammals to flowering in plants. Light and the day and night cycle are
very important for resetting the clock and the fine adjustments are
made through the action of several enzymes, including one called
casein kinase 1, which has been the centre of this project.
Professor Loudon continued "The circadian clock is linked to the 24
hour day-night cycle and the major part of the clock mechanism 'ticks'
once per day. If you imagine each 'tick' as represented by the rise
and fall of a wave over a 24 hour period, as you go up there is an
increase in the amount of proteins in the cell that are part of the
clock mechanism, and as you go down, these substances are degraded and
reduce again. What casein kinase 1 does is to facilitate the
degradation part.
"So you can imagine that the faster casein kinase 1 works, the steeper
the downward part of the wave and the faster the clock ticks - any
change in casein kinase 1 activity, faster or slower, would adjust the
'ticking' from 24 hours to some other time period. Consider that if
your body suddenly starts working on a 23 hour or 25 hour clock, many
of your natural processes, such as sleeping and waking could soon
become out of step with day and night."
The team found a drug that slows casein kinase 1 down and used it in
mice where the circadian rhythm has ceased i.e. the clock has stopped
ticking all together. In live mice and also in cells and tissue
samples from mice, they were able to re-establish the ticking of the
clock by using the drug to inhibit the activity of casein kinase 1.
Professor Loudon concluded "We've shown that it's possible to use
drugs to synchronise the body clock of a mouse and so it may also be
possible to use similar drugs to treat a whole range of health
problems associated with disruptions of circadian rhythms. This might
include some psychiatric diseases and certain circadian sleep
disorders. It could also help people cope with jet lag and the impact
of shift work."
Professor Janet Allen, BBSRC Director of Research said "The most
effective way to develop drugs to treat a health problem is to
understand the basic biology that underpins what is going on in our
bodies. In this case, by understanding the basic biology of the enzyme
controlling biological clocks the research team have been able to
identify potential drug-based solutions to a range of issues that
affect many people's health and quality of life."
Dr Michel Goedert, Head of the Neurobiology Division at Medical
Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology said "We're all
familiar with jet-lag and that sense of being disoriented in time.
What is probably less widely understood is how this effect can impact
on those with certain mental illnesses. It is crucial to find out what
can go wrong at the molecular and cellular level in the brain if we
are to determine what treatments will work for patients. If further
studies in humans confirm what this study has shown in mice, this
could eventually lead to an entirely new approach to treating mental
illnesses such as bipolar disorder."
Dr. Wager, Associate Research Fellow, Pfizer said "It is amazing what
can be accomplished when first-rate academic groups and pharmaceutical
discovery units team up. Leveraging each other's talents we now have a
deeper understanding of the role casein kinase plays within biological
systems. Having the ability to entrain or re-entrain an arrhythmic
system opens the door to new treatment option for circadian rhythm
disorders. Targeting the inhibition of casein kinase with small
molecules may lead to the discovery of novel drugs for the treatment
of bipolar depression and other circadian rhythm disorders. The burden
of these disorders is enormous and new treatment options are needed."
More information: Meng et al. 2010, "Entrainment of disrupted
circadian behavior through inhibition of casein kinase 1 (CK1)
enzymes", PNAS 107(34) p15240
Provided by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.
On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.
Rael
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