Parkinson's linked to narcolepsy

LOS ANGELES, May 14 The University of California, Los Angeles, and U.S. Veterans Affairs researchers say Parkinson's disease and narcolepsy share something in common.

The findings suggest a different clinical course of treatment for people suffering with Parkinson's that may ameliorate their sleep symptoms, according to the report published in the June issue of the journal Brain.

Jerry Siegel, of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, UCLA neurobiologist Thomas C. Thannickal and VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System physiologist Yuan-Yang Lai have determined that Parkinson's disease patients have a loss of up to 60 percent of brain cells containing the peptide hypocretin.

In 2000, the same researchers identified the cause of narcolepsy as a loss of hypocretin -- thought to be important in regulating the sleep cycle.

This latest research points to a common cause for the sleep disorders associated with these two diseases and suggests that treatment of Parkinson's disease patients with hypocretin or hypocretin analogs may reverse these symptoms, according to Siegel.

Copyright 2007 by UPI

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