Our bodies run on an internal clock that helps control when we sleep, wake up, eat, and feel alert.
This internal timing system, often called the body clock, follows a roughly 24-hour cycle. It influences many daily functions, including hormone release, body temperature, digestion, and brain activity.
When this clock is working well, people tend to feel awake during the day and sleepy at night. When it is disrupted, problems such as poor sleep, fatigue, mood changes, and difficulty concentrating can occur.
Modern life often disrupts the body clock. Traveling across time zones, especially when flying east, can cause jet lag.
Shift work, late-night screen use, and irregular schedules can also throw the clock off balance.
Many people struggle for days or even weeks to adjust, and current solutions do not always work well. Light therapy and supplements like melatonin require careful timing and can have mixed results.
Now, a team of researchers from several Japanese institutions has discovered a compound that may offer a new way to reset the body clock more reliably.
The team included scientists from Kanazawa University, Osaka University, Toyohashi University of Technology, and the Institute of Science Tokyo. They identified a compound called Mic-628 that directly affects the molecular machinery controlling daily rhythms in mammals.
In their experiments, the researchers found that Mic-628 activates a key clock gene known as Per1. This gene plays a central role in setting and adjusting the body’s internal timing. When Per1 activity changes, the timing of the body clock can shift forward or backward.
Mic-628 works in a very specific way. Inside cells, a protein called CRY1 normally acts as a brake on clock genes, keeping their activity under control. The researchers discovered that Mic-628 attaches directly to CRY1.
This attachment changes how CRY1 behaves and allows it to join with other clock-related proteins. Together, these proteins form a larger molecular group that includes CLOCK, BMAL1, CRY1, and Mic-628.
Once this group forms, it switches on the Per1 gene by acting on a special region of DNA. This region functions like a control switch for gene activity. By turning on Per1, Mic-628 pushes the body clock forward in time.
Importantly, this effect was seen both in the brain’s main clock center, known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and in clocks located in other organs, such as the lungs. All of these clocks shifted together, staying in sync.
One of the most striking findings was that Mic-628 worked regardless of when it was given. Most existing methods for adjusting the body clock depend heavily on timing.
If light exposure or melatonin is used at the wrong time, it may have little effect or even make things worse. Mic-628 did not have this limitation. It consistently moved the clock forward no matter when it was administered.
To see whether this effect could help with real-world problems, the researchers tested Mic-628 in mice experiencing a form of jet lag. The scientists shifted the animals’ light and dark schedule forward by six hours, similar to flying east across several time zones.
Normally, mice take about a week to fully adjust to this change. However, mice that received a single oral dose of Mic-628 adjusted much faster. They adapted to the new schedule in just four days instead of seven.
Further analysis showed that this smooth and steady adjustment was driven by a built-in feedback process involving the PER1 protein. This feedback helps stabilize the clock as it moves forward, preventing erratic or uneven shifts.
Moving the body clock forward is known to be especially difficult for both humans and animals. This is why eastward travel often feels worse than westward travel. The discovery that Mic-628 can reliably advance the clock offers a new and promising approach.
The researchers plan to continue studying Mic-628 to better understand its safety and effectiveness. More animal studies are needed, followed by research in humans. If future studies are successful, Mic-628 could become a new type of treatment for jet lag, sleep problems related to shift work, and other health issues caused by a misaligned body clock.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America and marks an important step toward drug-based solutions for managing the body’s internal time system.
If you care about sleep health, please read studies about foods that help people sleep better, and Keto diet could improve cognitive function in people with sleep loss.
For more health information, please see recent studies about the natural supplements for sound sleep, and how your diet can improve sleep quality.
Copyright © 2026 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
