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Age-related sleep decline is not inevitable: Clues from fruit flies
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Just like many elderly humans, elderly flies experience age-related decline in sleep quality. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (see accompanying figure, MPI f. Biology of Ageing/ W. Weiss) is used as a model organism in sleep studies as it also shares other features of sleep patterns with humans such as waking during the day and sleeping at night. A new study from researchers in the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne have therefore used fruit flies in a new study in which they show that dampening of nutrient sensing pathways can correct or reverse problems in sleep quality associated with ageing. The study was published on 1st April in the journal PLoS Biology.

Studies in humans have hinted at an association between diet and nutrition and sleep and a link between poor sleep quality and risk of obesity and diabetes. However, studies have tended to be small and the biological basis of the association is not clear. The current study implicates the nutrient sensing insulin/IGF (IIS) and TOR (Target of Rapamycin) signalling networks. Reduction in activity of these pathways has been previously associated with lifespan extension in both flies and mammals. Significantly the functions of these pathways are conserved among flies and humans.

The study results indicated that different elements of these pathways are involved in daytime activity versus night sleep. Author on the study Luke Tain explains: "Daytime activity and night-time sleep are thereby controlled by two different components: during the day, the neurotransmitter octopamine and the adipokinetic hormone AKH increase activity in flies. At night, on the other hand, the neurotransmitter dopamine and the kinase TOR reduce the sleep periods."

The researchers administered the TOR inhibitor rapamycin to elderly flies and found that the flies’ sleep quality improved, with longer periods of night sleep. Dr Tain says: “As a result, we were able to reverse the deterioration in sleep quality as a consequence of ageing." The next step is to examine the effects in higher organisms such as mice. The ultimate aim is to develop therapeutic agents based on these signalling networks to help reverse the problem of age-related decline in sleep quality with all its associated problems with physical and mental ill-health.

Sources:

Metaxakis A, Tain LS, Grönke S, Hendrich O, Hinze Y, Birras, U. and Partridge, L. (2014). Lowered Insulin Signalling Ameliorates Age-Related Sleep Fragmentation in Drosophila. PLoS Biol 12(4): e1001824. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.; available at http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:...io.1001824

Press release: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft; available at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2...040114.php

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Age-related sleep decline is not inevitable: Clues from fruit flies00