Insomnia may be a thing of the past

Researchers have found one of the keys to our sleep cycle. The answer as to why the melatonin levels rise and fall when they do has eluded them for some time now. They believe that they have found the chemical that regulates the process.

Published yesterday in the online edition of Nature Structural Biology, the paper identified the switch that destroys the enzyme controlling melatonin production.

“We’ve filled an important gap in our understanding of why melatonin levels rise and fall,” said Hopkins pharmacologist Philip Cole, who led the study, along with Hopkins researcher Weiping Zheng.

In humans and most other animals, melatonin largely controls the sleep-wake cycle. At night, the chemical increases in key areas of the brain; in daylight, it decreases.

Cole and his colleagues studied an enzyme called arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT), which plays a major role in turning serotonin into melatonin. When present, AANAT triggers melatonin production. In the presence of light, the body quickly destroys the enzyme, which ends melatonin production.

This information will one day benefit the millions of people that suffer from the following disorders/conditions; insomnia, narcolepsy and jet lag. The techniques used are also of great benefit for they may help in other areas of research.

The research could bear additional fruit because it was the first time that scientists have been able to create an enzyme that’s impervious to phosphorylation. “We’ve used an absolutely novel technology here,” Klein said.

Thousands of enzymes switch themselves on and off by adding or removing phosphate groups - some play key roles in diseases.

By using synthetic enzymes whose phosphates are permanently attached, scientists may be able to learn more about how these enzymes contribute to various ailments.

The new technique could be especially useful to cancer researchers, because they believe that many forms of cancer involve faulty phosphorylation - a process in which enzymes become stuck in the “on” mode.

Source: sunspot.net