New animal research in mice suggests that sleep deprivation may be associated with a greater risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease in older adults.
In the study, a team of researchers led by Samira Parhizkar, PhD, of the Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used different genetic mouse models to investigate the effects of sleep loss in the overproduction of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques, commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Findings of the study were published in the Science Translational Medicine journal.
The researchers compared chronically sleep deprived wild-type mice with mice with normal sleeping patterns. The sleep deprived mice not only saw increased Aβ plaque deposition compared with mice with normal sleeping patterns but also a reduced ability of their immune cells to remove amyloid brain deposits.
“Sleep loss is associated with cognitive decline in the aging population and is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease,” the authors wrote in the study’s abstract.
Researchers found sleep loss may contribute to cognitive decline by reducing immune function in the brain, and suggested that clinical therapies to improve sleep function may help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
“Our findings highlight that sleep deprivation directly affects microglial reactivity … by altering the metabolic ability to cope with the energy demands of prolonged wakefulness, leading to further Aβ deposition, and underlines the importance of sleep modulation as a promising future therapeutic approach,” the authors concluded.
