A newly discovered clue to the workings of a protein, PER, that helps regulate sleep and sets the body’s biological clock may aid the treatment of sleep disorders.
The discovery relates to the way in which a mutation in the CK1 gene, called the tau mutation, affects the gene’s activity. This change triggers changes in the body clock in ways that are different from what had been formerly believed, which were found when researchers studied how fast PER degraded in cells.
“The key to developing treatments for problems like depression and insomnia — disorders influenced by circadian rhythm — is being able to predict how the body’s internal clock can be controlled,” Dr. David Virshup of the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute said in a statement.
Virshup and Daniel Forger of the University of Michigan were co-lead authors of the report. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Huntsman Cancer Institute and the Sloan Foundation.
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