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Coco Warner ReportingResetting our internal body clocks is big business. Think about how many drugs out there claim to help you stay awake, get to sleep or fight jet lag. It's the reason new research from the Huntsman Cancer Institute could send drug companies back to the drawing board.
Everyone's circadian rhythm--or internal body clock--is slightly different. Still, most of us wake up with the sun and fall asleep when it's dark. But what if you could safely change it? It's an appealing idea for travelers, shift workers and insomniacs, and big business for drug companies.
Dr. David Virshup, Huntsman Cancer Institute: "When we have a detailed understanding of how the clock works, we'll be able to come up with new ways to help people with the different stresses that modern society puts on our own clocks."
Based on the research of a mutant gene in a hamster that experienced 20 hour days, drug companies have long believed this mutation altered the body's clock. But new research by the Huntsman Cancer Institute shows they were wrong about how.
Dr. David Virshup, Huntsman Cancer Institute: "So if you took the drug at 8 o'clock at night, your body would think it was midnight and you'd be asleep. But, we find if you take this drug at 8 o'clock at night, you're going to think it's noon and you're not going to get to sleep for a long time."
The Huntsman Cancer Institute teamed up with a mathematician from the University of Michigan who came up with a module disproving the previously accepted hypothesis, that a decrease in gene activity sped up the clock. Dr. Virshup's lab work with cultured rat cells went on to support a new theory: an increase in gene activity speeds up the clock.
Dr. David Virshup, Huntsman Cancer Institute: "So that completely reverses what the drug companies are trying to do. They thought this drug would, their drug would speed up the clock. Our findings say that their drug would slow down the clock."
And the next step for researchers is what they call to wreck and check. They're going to break down the theory and then test it out on mice.
Dr. David Virshup, Huntsman Cancer Institute: "Once we know how it works, we'll be able to understand how to work better with our own clocks, instead of fighting against them."
These new findings have no effect on the drugs currently on the market, but, hopefully, will ensure that future drugs in this area do what they're supposed to do.
The results of this study will be available in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
