130 patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy (mean ± SD age 20 ± 10 yrs, 69% male) and 117 controls (22 ± 6.9 yrs, 62% male) were recruited and tested for human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DQB1*0602 status, hyperoxia hypercapnic (change in minute ventilation (δV'(E))/carbon dioxide tension (δP(CO(2))) L·min(-1)·mmHg(-1)) and hypoxic (δV'(E) /change in arterial oxygen saturation measured by probe oximetry (δS(p,O(2))) L·min(-1) per %S(p,O(2))) responsiveness, and by spirometry.
Narcolepsy with cataplexy is most commonly caused by an immune-mediated process including genetic and environmental factors, resulting in the selective loss of hypocretin-producing neurons.
Narcolepsy with cataplexy is a lifelong disease resulting from the loss of hypocretin neurons in the hypothalamus; structural changes are not, however, limited only to the hypothalamus.
Narcolepsy with cataplexy is a neurological sleep disorder, which is believed to arise from the autoimmune destruction of hypocretin-producing neurons.
About three quarters of the HLA DQB1*0602 positive patients with narcolepsy and cataplexy had low CSF hypocretin-1 values, and appear to form a distinct clinical entity.
About three quarters of the HLA DQB1*0602 positive patients with narcolepsy and cataplexy had low CSF hypocretin-1 values, and appear to form a distinct clinical entity.
About three quarters of the HLA DQB1*0602 positive patients with narcolepsy and cataplexy had low CSF hypocretin-1 values, and appear to form a distinct clinical entity.
Across populations, low CSF hcrt-1 and HLA-DQB1*0602-positivity characterized the majority of NC (80% to 100%, P = 0.53; 80% to 100%, P = 0.11) but a minority of NwC patients (11% to 29%, P = 0.75; 29% to 89%, P = 0.043).
Acting on a specific genetic background, an autoimmune process targeting hypocretin neurons in response to yet unknown environmental factors is the most probable hypothesis in most cases of human narcolepsy with cataplexy.
As disruption of orexin (hypocretin) signaling is a primary defect in narcolepsy with cataplexy, we investigated whether markers of cholinergic synaptic transmission might be altered in mice constitutively lacking orexin receptors (double receptor knockout; DKO). mRNA for Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) and the high-affinity choline transporter (CHT1) but not acetylcholinesterase (AChE) was significantly higher in samples from DKO than wild-type (WT) mice.