The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine recently published a study that brings new hope in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition affecting nearly a billion people globally.
This groundbreaking research, conducted by experts from the University of Missouri School of Medicine and elsewhere.
OSA is not just a sleep disorder; it’s linked to accelerated aging and serious health issues affecting the heart, brain, and metabolism. While the common treatment, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), helps to some extent, it doesn’t fully reverse these negative health impacts.
Gozal and his team have explored a new approach, focusing on senolytics, drugs that target aging cells, as a potential adjunct therapy to alleviate OSA’s burden.
The team’s research centered on a treatment strategy that combines targeting cell senescence (aging) with a simulated form of CPAP adherence. They conducted experiments on mice subjected to chronic intermittent hypoxia (IH), a key characteristic of OSA.
The study’s remarkable finding was that a combination of partial normoxic recovery (mimicking good CPAP adherence) and a senolytic drug called Navitoclax (NAV) significantly improved sleepiness during the animals’ usual sleeping period and enhanced cognitive function.
These improvements were not observed with CPAP treatment alone.
Gozal, the leading author, emphasizes that treating OSA effectively goes beyond just normalizing breathing patterns during sleep. Targeting the accelerated aging process triggered by OSA seems to be a promising path.
Mohammad Badran, Ph.D., from the University of Missouri, points out that while traditional CPAP treatment helps, it falls short in addressing the various end-organ dysfunctions caused by OSA. Incorporating senolytics into treatment regimes could be key.
Moreover, this combined therapy showed positive impacts on heart artery function and improved metabolism, along with reducing gut permeability. Essentially, it suggests that the approach could reverse the cellular aging caused by OSA.
This research is a significant step in understanding the complex health issues linked to OSA and developing new treatments that address these problems more holistically.
The next steps include creating safe senolytics specifically for OSA and conducting clinical trials to see if these promising findings translate to human patients.
The study may pave the way for innovative treatments in sleep medicine, offering hope to millions suffering from OSA and its associated health complications.
If you care about sleep, please read studies about herb that could help you sleep well at night, and these drugs could lower severity of sleep apnea by one third.
For more information about sleep, please see recent studies that coffee boosts your physical activity, cuts sleep, affects heartbeat, and results showing how to deal with “COVID-somnia” and sleep well at night.
The research findings can be found in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
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