New Study to Explore the Link Between Sleep Disorder and Parkinson’s

Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, a new study will be conducted to examine why individuals, especially veterans, who suffer from a certain sleep disorder often end up developing Parkinson’s disease. The DoD awarded $4 million to researchers at Oregon Health and Science University (OSHU), the VA Healthcare System at Portland, the VA Sound Healthcare System at Puget, and the University of Washington to conduct this study.

The research aims to establish why most people who develop a sleep disorder that causes them to thrash in their sleep later develop Parkinson’s. The team wants to know why this happens and if anything can be done to cut the risk of Parkinson’s disease developing in this high risk group. The recruitment process has started.

The researchers believe that the answers they seek can be found in the glymphatic system. This system is most active during REM sleep, or very deep sleep. The glymphatic system exists throughout the brain and is responsible for clearing metabolic waste and proteins from the brain. Dr. Miranda Lim, PhD., explains that the study seeks to find ways to boost how the glymphatic system works. She adds that to do this, they must first understand how this vital system works.

To this end, the team will require three categories of study subjects. The first group will be individuals that suffer from Parkinson’s disease. The second group will be individuals diagnosed with the sleep disorder which seems to be the precursor of Parkinson’s. The final group will be composed of healthy subjects that will serve as the control group. All these selected people will be subjected to MRI tests to study their brains.

REM sleep, or rapid eye movement sleep, is a deep form of sleep characterized by near paralysis of the muscles in the body. For individuals afflicted with RBD (rapid eye movement sleep behavioral disorder), this muscle paralysis doesn’t happen as it should. As a result, individuals with this disorder act while they dream, and this often causes them to injure themselves or others, such as their partners. This explains why boosting the function of the glymphatic system could have profound benefits by not only addressing the sleeping disorder but also potentially forestalling the onset of Parkinson’s in the affected individuals.

The study will involve three different projects happening simultaneously. One project will involve studying glymphatic function in healthy individuals, in individuals with Parkinson’s, and in people with the sleep disorder. The second project entails studying mice treated with a high BP drug often prescribed to some people with nightmares resulting from PTSD. The objective here is to see whether that drug helps the brain to clear proteins called Lewy bodies. The third project entails studying the brain tissues of people who died and were known to suffer from Parkinson’s disease.

The study is expected to be completed in about 4 years. The findings of this study could enrich the scientific data available to enterprises like Clene Inc. (NASDAQ: CLNN) that are focused on finding effective treatments targeting neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s disease.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Clene Inc. (NASDAQ: CLNN) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CLNN

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