Orexin peptides prevent cataplexy and improve wakefulness in an orexin neuron-ablated model of narcolepsy in mice
by
Michihiro Mieda *, Jon T. Willie *, Junko Hara , Christopher M. Sinton ¶, Takeshi Sakurai , and Masashi Yanagisawa *||
*Department of Molecular Genetics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and ¶Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390-9050; Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan; and Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology, Yanagisawa Orphan Receptor Project, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo 135-0064, Japan
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0400590101

ABSTRACT

Narcolepsy-cataplexy is a neurological disorder associated with the inability to maintain wakefulness and abnormal intrusions of rapid eye movement sleep-related phenomena into wakefulness such as cataplexy. The vast majority of narcoleptic-cataplectic individuals have low or undetectable levels of orexin (hypocretin) neuropeptides in the cerebrospinal fluid, likely due to specific loss of the hypothalamic orexin-producing neurons. Currently available treatments for narcolepsy are only palliative, symptom-oriented pharmacotherapies. Here, we demonstrate rescue of the narcolepsy-cataplexy phenotype of orexin neuron-ablated mice by genetic and pharmacological means. Ectopic expression of a prepro-orexin transgene in the brain completely prevented cataplectic arrests and other abnormalities of rapid eye movement sleep in the absence of endogenous orexin neurons. Central administration of orexin-A acutely suppressed cataplectic behavioral arrests and increased wakefulness for 3 h. These results indicate that orexin neuron-ablated mice retain the ability to respond to orexin neuropeptides and that a temporally regulated and spatially targeted secretion of orexins is not necessary to prevent narcoleptic symptoms. Orexin receptor agonists would be of potential value for treating human narcolepsy.

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