Diagnosing narcolepsy

A new way to diagnose narcolepsy using T cells¹ has piqued the interest of at least two companies-Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc and GlaxoSmithKline plc. The former could use the results to help diagnose patients eligible for its narcolepsy drug Xyrem sodium oxybate. The latter thinks the findings could help it develop influenza vaccines that lack the extremely rare side effect of inducing narcolepsy.

Narcolepsy causes excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy and disruptions in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The causes of narcolepsy are unknown but are thought to be a combination of environmental effects and a genetic immune predisposition that causes an autoimmune response against the neurotransmitter orexin (hypocretin; HCRT). The autoimmune attack, in turn, destroys the hypothalamic neurons that produce orexin...