discussion title:
Wake-Up Drug Could Help Sleep-Deprived
TUESDAY, Aug. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Shiftworkers, hospital staff clocking long hours, and other sleep-challenged Americans may someday have a means of restoring full alertness even if sleep-deprived.
Researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., say an experimental drug called CX717 temporarily improved performance and reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in the brains of monkeys.
The drug works on a type of brain receptor involved in cell-to-cell communication, boosting the action of the neurotransmitter glutamate.
Reporting late Monday in the online edition of the Public Library of Science-Biology, the team first taught alert, well-rested monkeys to pick out specific images from a range of others flashed on a computer screen. Use of CX717 improved test scores of these fully alert monkeys to near-perfect, the researchers report.
Learn more at:
http://health.ivillage.com/brain/0,,wbnews_84bn02xf,00.html?ice=iv|wb|news,alert
IVHealth Ruth Ann
Community Leader/Ask the Health Librarian
