No sedative necessary: Scientists discover new 'sleep node' in the brain

[Strawberry]

I want one of these!

"When we turned on the GABA neurons in the PZ, the animals quickly fell into a deep sleep without the use of sedatives or sleep aids."
How these neurons interact in the brain with other sleep and wake-promoting brain regions still need to be studied, the researchers say, but eventually these findings may translate into new medications for treating sleep disorders, including insomnia, and the development of better and safer anesthetics.

from here:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140918162313.htm

 

[alex3619]

Here is hoping.

While there check this out too: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140922130753.htm

Non-alcoholic beer anyone?

 

[Dreambirdie]

Hmmmmm... interesting and scary, which is par for the course for science I suppose.

"To get the precision required for these experiments, we introduced a virus into the PZ that expressed a 'designer' receptor on GABA neurons only but didn't otherwise alter brain function," explains Patrick Fuller, assistant professor at Harvard and senior author on the paper. "When we turned on the GABA neurons in the PZ, the animals quickly fell into a deep sleep without the use of sedatives or sleep aids."

Not sure if I would want a virus introduced into the PZ of my brain.
There are too many viruses in there already.

 

[alex3619]

They couldn't possibly use a virus in people to do this. However it is proof in principle, enough to get grants to go looking for other ways to do it.

 

[Strawberry]

They couldn't possibly use a virus in people to do this. However it is proof in principle, enough to get grants to go looking for other ways to do it.

Why not? My daughter did an assistant internship at the University of Washington, and her job was to raise ecoli cells that they were going to attach "feet" to. Or something like that...

Is non alcoholic beer wheat free?

 

[alex3619]

Viral infection is not stable, and its unreliable as a vector, or at least it used to be, things might have advanced. Targeted delivery systems for a drug version might be better, I don't know though, I have not investigated this and targeted delivery is also new tech.

Gene transfection on bacteria is dead easy. We had a prac on it at uni. Takes a few hours over a week or so, but that is it. Similar with plants, you just blast seeds with a gene gun, and then plant. Some will have the new gene. Humans are darn complicated. You might be able to do it to an embryo, but an adult is another story. Can it be done safely? I am sure people are working on it, but I don't recall reading good success stories here, only hopeful ones.

I suspect a lot of beer, nonalcoholic or not, does contain grain products.

 

[Strawberry]

Well then it would be interesting to see more than the press release and how they "introduced a virus into the PZ."