Reduced Numbers of Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone Neurons in Narcolepsy Type 1.

Narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) is a chronic sleep disorder correlated with loss of hypocretin(orexin). In NT1 post-mortem brains, we observed 88% reduction in corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)-positive neurons in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and significantly less CRH-positive fibers in the median eminence, whereas CRH-neurons in the locus coeruleus and thalamus, and other PVN neuronal populations were spared: that is, vasopressin, oxytocin, tyrosine hydroxylase, and thyrotropin releasing hormone-expressing neurons. Other hypothalamic cell groups, that is, the suprachiasmatic, ventrolateral preoptic, infundibular, and supraoptic nuclei and nucleus basalis of Meynert, were unaffected. The surprising selective decrease in CRH-neurons provide novel targets for diagnostics and therapeutic interventions. ANN NEUROL 2022;91:282-288.

Alterations in the structural covariance network of the hypothalamus in patients with narcolepsy.

PURPOSE: The hypothalamus plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of narcolepsy. This study aimed to evaluate the differences in the structural covariance network of thehypothalamus based on volume differences between patients with narcolepsy and healthy controls. METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled 15 patients with narcolepsy and 19 healthy controls.All subjects underwent three-dimensional T1-weighted imaging using a 3-T magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Hypothalamic subunits were segmented, and the volumes of individual hypothalamic subunits were obtained using the FreeSurfer program. Subsequently, we conducted a structural covariance network analysis of the subunit volumes with graph theory using the BRAPH program in patients with narcolepsy and in healthy controls. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the volumes of the entire right and left hypothalamus nor in the hypothalamic subunit between patients with narcolepsy and healthy controls. However, we found significant differences in the structural covariance network in the hypothalamus between these groups. The characteristic path length was significantly lower in patients with narcolepsy than in healthy controls (1.698 vs. 2.831, p = 0.001). However, other network measures did not differ between patients with narcolepsy and healthy controls. CONCLUSION: We found that the structural covariance network of the hypothalamus, as assessed from the subunit volumes of hypothalamic regions using a graph theoretical analysis, is different in patients with narcolepsy compared to healthy controls. These findings may contribute to the understanding of the pathogenesis of narcolepsy.

Morphological and Age-Related Changes in the Narcolepsy Brain.

Morphological changes in the cortex of narcolepsy patients were investigated by surface-based morphometry analysis in this study. Fifty-one type 1 narcolepsy patients and 60 demographically group-matched healthy controls provided resting-state functional and high-resolution 3T anatomical magnetic resonance imaging scans. Vertex-level cortical thickness (CT), gyrification, and voxel-wise functional connectivity were calculated. Adolescent narcolepsy patients showed decreased CT in bilateral frontal cortex and left precuneus. Adolescent narcolepsy demonstrated increased gyrification in left occipital lobe, left precuneus, and right fusiform but decreased gyrification in left postcentral gyrus, whereas adult narcolepsy exhibited increased gyrification in left temporal lobe and right frontal cortex. Furthermore, sleepiness severity was associated with altered CT and gyrification. Increased gyrification was associated with reduced long-range functional connectivity. In adolescent patients, those with more severe sleepiness showed increased right postcentral gyrification. Decreased frontal and occipital gyrification was found in cases with hallucination. In adult patients, a wide range of regions showed reduced gyrification in those with adolescence-onset compared adult-onset narcolepsy patients. Particularly the frontal lobes showed altered brain morphology, being a thinner cortex and more gyri. The impact of narcolepsy on age-related brain morphological changes may remain from adolescence to young adulthood, and it was especially exacerbated in adolescence.

Sexual excitation induces courtship ultrasonic vocalizations and cataplexy-like behavior in orexin neuron-ablated male mice.

Cataplexy is triggered by laughter in humans and palatable food in mice. To further evaluate mice's cataplexy, we examined courtship behavior in orexin neuron-ablated mice (ORX-AB), one of the animal models of narcolepsy/cataplexy. Wild-type female mice were placed into the home cage of male ORX-AB and cataplexy-like behavior was observed along with ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), also known as the "love song". ORX-AB with a female encounter showed cataplexy-like behavior both during the dark and light periods, whereas ORX-AB with chocolate predominantly showed it during the dark period. During the light period observation, more than 85% of cataplexy-like bouts were preceded by USVs. A strong positive correlation was observed between the number of USVs and cataplexy-like bouts. Cataplexy-like behavior in narcoleptic mice is a good behavioral measure to study the brain mechanisms behind positive emotion because they can be induced by different kinds of positive stimuli, including chocolate and female courtship.

Orexins role in neurodegenerative diseases: From pathogenesis to treatment.

Orexin is a neurotransmitter that mainly regulates sleep/wake cycle. In addition to its sleep cycle regulatory role, it is involved in regulation of attention, energy homeostasis, neurogenesis and cognition. Several evidences has shown the involvement of orexin in narcolepsy, but there are also growing evidences that shows the disturbance in orexin system in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Epilepsy, Huntington's diseases and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Pathogenesis and clinical symptoms of these disorders can be partly attributed from orexin system imbalance. However, there are controversial reports on the exact relationship between orexin and these neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, the aim of this review is to summarize the current evidences regarding the role of orexin in these neurodegenerative diseases.

Involvement of the Nucleus Accumbens in Chocolate-induced Cataplexy.

Happiness is key for both mental and physical well-being. To further understand the brain mechanisms involved, we utilized the cataplexy that occurs in narcoleptic animal models as a quantitative behavioral measure because it is triggered by actions associated with happiness, such as laughter in humans and palatable foods in mice. Here we report that the rostral part of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell is strongly activated during the beginning of chocolate-induced cataplexy in orexin neuron-ablated mice. We made a local lesion in the NAc using ibotenic acid and observed the animals' behavior. The number of cataplexy bouts was negatively correlated to the lesion size. We also examined the hedonic response to palatable food by measuring the number of tongue protrusions in response to presentation of honey, which was also found to be negatively correlated to the lesion size. Next, we used clozapine N-oxide to either activate or inactivate the NAc through viral DREADD expression. As expected, the number of cataplexy bouts increased with activation and decreased with inactivation, and saline control injections showed no changes. Hedonic response in the DREADD experiment varied and showed both increases and decreases across mice. These results demonstrated that the rostral part of the NAc plays a crucial role in triggering cataplexy and hedonic orofacial movements. Since the NAc is also implicated in motivated behavior, we propose that the NAc is one of the key brain structures involved in happiness and is a driving force for positive emotion-related behaviors.

Neuroimaging of Narcolepsy and Primary Hypersomnias.

Advances in neuroimaging open up the possibility for new powerful tools to be developed that potentially can be applied to clinical populations to improve the diagnosis of neurological disorders, including sleep disorders. At present, the diagnosis of narcolepsy and primary hypersomnias is largely limited to subjective assessments and objective measurements of behavior and sleep physiology. In this review, we focus on recent neuroimaging findings that provide insight into the neural basis of narcolepsy and the primary hypersomnias Kleine-Levin syndrome and idiopathic hypersomnia. We describe the role of neuroimaging in confirming previous genetic, neurochemical, and neurophysiological findings and highlight studies that permit a greater understanding of the symptoms of these sleep disorders. We conclude by considering some of the remaining challenges to overcome, the existing knowledge gaps, and the potential role for neuroimaging in understanding the pathogenesis and clinical features of narcolepsy and primary hypersomnias.

Widespread white matter connectivity abnormalities in narcolepsy type 1: A diffusion tensor imaging study.

Narcolepsy type 1 is caused by a selective loss of hypothalamic hypocretin-producing neurons, resulting in severely disturbed sleep-wake control and cataplexy. Hypocretin-producing neurons project widely throughout the brain, influencing different neural networks. We assessed the extent of microstructural white matter organization and brain-wide structural connectivity abnormalities in a homogeneous group of twelve drug-free patients with narcolepsy type 1 and eleven matched healthy controls using diffusion tensor imaging with multimodal analysis techniques. First, tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) was carried out using fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean, axial and radial diffusivity (MD, AD, RD). Second, quantitative analyses of mean FA, MD, AD and RD were conducted in predefined regions-of-interest, including sleep-wake regulation-related, limbic and reward system areas. Third, we performed hypothalamus-seeded tractography towards the thalamus, amygdala and midbrain. TBSS analyses yielded brain-wide significantly lower FA and higher RD in patients. Localized significantly lower FA and higher RD in the left ventral diencephalon and lower AD in the midbrain, were seen in patients. Lower FA was also found in patients in left hypothalamic fibers connecting with the midbrain. No significant MD and AD differences nor a correlation with disease duration were found. The brain-wide, localized ventral diencephalon (comprising the hypothalamus and different sleep- and motor-related nuclei) and hypothalamic connectivity differences clearly show a heretofore underestimated direct and/or indirect effect of hypocretin deficiency on microstructural white matter composition, presumably resulting from a combination of lower axonal density, lower myelination and/or greater axon diameter.

Structural anomaly in the reticular formation in narcolepsy type 1, suggesting lower levels of neuromelanin.

The aim of this study was to investigate structural changes in the brain stem of adolescents with narcolepsy, a disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, fragmented night-time sleep, and cataplexy. For this purpose, we used quantitative magnetic resonance imaging to obtain R1 and R2 relaxation rates, proton density, and myelin maps in adolescents with narcolepsy (n = 14) and healthy controls (n = 14). We also acquired resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for brainstem connectivity analysis. We found a significantly lower R2 in the rostral reticular formation near the superior cerebellar peduncle in narcolepsy patients, family wise error corrected p = .010. Narcolepsy patients had a mean R2 value of 1.17 s-1 whereas healthy controls had a mean R2 of 1.31 s-1, which was a large effect size with Cohen d = 4.14. We did not observe any significant differences in R1 relaxation, proton density, or myelin content. The sensitivity of R2 to metal ions in tissue and the transition metal ion chelating property of neuromelanin indicate that the R2 deviant area is one of the neuromelanin containing nuclei of the brain stem. The close proximity and its demonstrated involvement in sleep-maintenance, specifically through orexin projections from the hypothalamus regulating sleep stability, as well as the results from the connectivity analysis, suggest that the observed deviant area could be the locus coeruleus or other neuromelanin containing nuclei in the proximity of the superior cerebellar peduncle. Hypothetically, the R2 differences described in this paper could be due to lower levels of neuromelanin in this area of narcolepsy patients.

Shared T cell receptor chains in blood memory CD4+ T cells of narcolepsy type 1 patients.

Convergent evidence points to the involvement of T cells in the pathogenesis of narcolepsy type 1 (NT1). Here, we hypothesized that expanded disease-specific T cell clones could be detected in the blood of NT1 patients. We compared the TCR repertoire of circulating antigen-experienced CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from 13 recently diagnosed NT1 patients and 11 age-, sex-, and HLA-DQB1*06:02-matched healthy controls. We detected a bias in the usage of TRAV3 and TRAV8 families, with public CDR3α motifs only present in CD4+ T cells from patients with NT1. These findings may offer a unique tool to identify disease-relevant antigens.

Neuroimaging correlates of narcolepsy with cataplexy: A systematic review.

Recent developments in neuroimaging techniques have advanced our understanding of biological mechanisms underpinning narcolepsy. We used MEDLINE to retrieve neuroimaging studies to compare patients with narcolepsy and healthy controls. Thirty-seven studies were identified and demonstrated several replicated abnormalities: (1) gray matter reductions in superior frontal, superior and inferior temporal, and middle occipital gyri, hypothalamus, amygdala, insula, hippocampus, cingulate cortex, thalamus, and nucleus accumbens, (2) decreased fractional anisotropy in white matter of fronto-orbital and cingulate area, (3) reduced brain metabolism or cerebral blood flow in middle and superior frontal, and cingulate cortex (4) increased activity in inferior frontal gyri, insula, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens, and (5) N-acetylaspartate/creatine-phosphocreatine level reduction in hypothalamus. In conclusion, all the replicated findings are still controversial due to the limitations such as heterogeneity or size of the samples and lack of multimodal imaging or follow-up. Thus, future neuroimaging studies should employ multimodal imaging methods in a large sample size of patients with narcolepsy and consider age, duration of disease, age at onset, severity, human leukocyte antigen type, cerebrospinal fluid hypocretin levels, and medication intake in order to elucidate possible neuroimaging characteristic of narcolepsy and identify therapeutic targets.

Anterior hippocampus volume loss in narcolepsy with cataplexy.

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. We previously revealed an overall hippocampal volume loss in narcolepsy with cataplexy. The aim of this study is to describe the volume reduction of the anterior and posterior parts of the hippocampus in patients with narcolepsy with cataplexy in comparison with a control group. The anterior hippocampus is more involved in episodic memory and imagination, and the posterior hippocampus in spatial memory. Manual magnetic resonance imaging hippocampal volumetry was performed in 48 patients with narcolepsy with cataplexy and in 37 controls using the manual delineation technique in the ScanView program. All participants were examined on the same 1.5 T MR scanner; measurement was carried out as T1W 3D image with a slice thickness of 1.0/0 mm. There was a significant absolute loss of the total volume of the anterior hippocampus (sum of left and right) in patients with narcolepsy with cataplexy as compared with the controls (10.5%, p = .03 ANCOVA after correcting for total brain volume and multiple testing). We found a negative correlation between the total anterior hippocampus volume and the duration of the disease (R = -0.4036, p = .016-corrected for multiple testing).

The neurobiological basis of narcolepsy.

Narcolepsy is the most common neurological cause of chronic sleepiness. The discovery about 20 years ago that narcolepsy is caused by selective loss of the neurons producing orexins (also known as hypocretins) sparked great advances in the field. Here, we review the current understanding of how orexin neurons regulate sleep-wake behaviour and the consequences of the loss of orexin neurons. We also summarize the developing evidence that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disorder that may be caused by a T cell-mediated attack on the orexin neurons and explain how these new perspectives can inform better therapeutic approaches.

Circulating follicular helper T cells exhibit reduced ICOS expression and impaired function in narcolepsy type 1 patients.

Despite genetic and epidemiological evidence strongly supporting an autoimmune basis for narcolepsy type 1, the mechanisms involved have remained largely unknown. Here, we aimed to investigate whether the frequency and function of circulating follicular helper and follicular regulatory T cells are altered in narcolepsy type 1. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were collected from 32 patients with narcolepsy type 1, including 11 who developed disease after Pandemrix® vaccination, and 32 age-, sex-, and HLA-DQB1*06:02-matched healthy individuals. The frequency and phenotype of the different circulating B cell and follicular T cell subsets were examined by flow cytometry. The function of follicular helper T cells was evaluated by assessing the differentiation of naïve and memory B cells in a co-culture assay. We revealed a notable increase in the frequency of circulating B cells and CD4+CXCR5+ follicular T cells in narcolepsy patients compared to age-, sex- and HLA-matched healthy controls. However, the inducible T-cell costimulator molecule, ICOS, was selectively down-regulated on follicular T cells from patients. Reduced frequency of activated ICOS+ and PD1high blood follicular T cells was also observed in the narcolepsy group. Importantly, follicular T cells isolated from patients with narcolepsy type 1 had a reduced capacity to drive the proliferation/survival and differentiation of memory B cells. Our results provide novel insights into the potential involvement of T cell-dependent B cell responses in the pathogenesis of narcolepsy type 1 in which down-regulation of ICOS expression on follicular helper T cells correlates with their reduced function. We hypothesize that these changes contribute to regulation of the deleterious autoimmune process after disease onset.

Widespread white matter changes in post-H1N1 patients with narcolepsy type 1 and first-degree relatives.

Study Objectives: To assess white matter involvement in H1N1-vaccinated hypocretin deficient patients with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) compared with first-degree relatives (a potential risk group) and healthy controls. Methods: We compared four diffusion tensor imaging-based microstructural indices (fractional anisotropy [FA], mean diffusivity [MD], radial diffusivity [RD], and axial diffusivity [AD]) in 57 patients with NT1 (39 females, mean age 21.8 years, 51/57 H1N1-vaccinated, 57/57 HLA-DQB1*06:02-positive, 54/54 hypocretin-deficient), 54 first-degree relatives (29 females, mean age 19.1 years, 37/54 H1N1-vaccinated, 32/54 HLA-DQB1*06:02-positive), and 55 healthy controls (38 females, mean age 22.3 years). We tested for differences between these groups, for parametric effects (controls > first-degree relatives > patients) and associations in patients (cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] hypocretin-1 and disease duration) and first-degree relatives (HLA-DQB1*06:02 and H1N1-vaccination). We employed tract-based spatial statistics and used permutation testing and threshold-free cluster enhancement for inference. Results: Patients with NT1 had a widespread, bilateral pattern of significantly lower FA compared with first-degree relatives and healthy controls. Additionally, patients with NT1 also exhibited significantly higher RD and lower AD in several focal white matter clusters. The parametric model showed that first-degree relatives had intermediate values. Full sample of patients with NT1 showed no significant associations with disease duration or CSF hypocretin-1. Conclusions: Our study suggests widespread abnormal white matter involvement far beyond the already known focal hypothalamic pathology in NT1, possibly reflecting the combined effects of the loss of the widely projecting hypothalamic hypocretin neurons, and/or secondary effects of wake/sleep dysregulation. These findings demonstrate the importance of white matter pathology in NT1.

Functional brown adipose tissue and sympathetic activity after cold exposure in humans with type 1 narcolepsy.

Study Objectives: To investigate the activity of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in patients with type 1 narcolepsy during cold exposure using two separate scans of sympathetic and metabolic activity of BAT to evaluate whether orexin deficiency leads to altered nonshivering thermoregulation in narcolepsy. Methods: Seven patients with type 1 narcolepsy and seven healthy controls underwent two consecutive scans after 2 hr cold exposure: 123I-meta-iodo-benzyl-guanidine (123I-MIBG) single photon emission computed tomography and18F-2-deoxy-glucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography and computed tomography to visualize sympathetic innervation and metabolic activity of BAT, respectively. Plasma levels of eight hormones regulating BAT activity were measured before and after 2 hr in the cold. Results: 18F-FDG-uptake and uptake of 123I-MIBG in BAT after 2 hr cold exposure were observed in all individuals, but the activity of BAT was not significantly different between patients with type 1 narcolepsy and healthy controls (p > 0.05). Plasma levels of GLP-1 were higher in patients with type 1 narcolepsy compared with controls (p < 0.05), but not altered by cold adaptation in patients and controls (p > 0.05). FGF21 concentrations decreased after 2 hr cold exposure in both patients with type 1 narcolepsy and healthy participants (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Sympathetic and metabolic activity of BAT was observed after cold exposure in patients with type 1 narcolepsy. Increased GLP-1 in narcolepsy may suggest autonomic dysfunction with metabolic changes. We conclude that BAT is functional after cold exposure in spite of the loss of orexinergic neurons in narcolepsy.

Multiple sleep latency test in narcolepsy type 1 and narcolepsy type 2: A 5-year follow-up study.

Excessively sleepy teenagers and young adults without sleep-disordered breathing are diagnosed with either narcolepsy type 1 or narcolepsy type 2, or hypersomnia, based on the presence/absence of cataplexy and the results of a multiple sleep latency test. However, there is controversy surrounding this nomenclature. We will try to find the differences between different diagnoses of hypersomnia from the results of the long-term follow-up evaluation of a sleep study. We diagnosed teenagers who had developed excessive daytime sleepiness based on the criteria of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, 3rd edition. Each individual received the same clinical neurophysiologic testing every year for 5 years after the initial diagnosis of narcolepsy type 1 (n = 111) or type 2 (n = 46). The follow-up evaluation demonstrated that narcolepsy type 1 (narcolepsy-cataplexy) is a well-defined clinical entity, with very reproducible clinical neurophysiologic findings over time, whereas patients with narcolepsy type 2 presented clear clinical and test variability. By the fifth year of the follow-up evaluation, 17.6% of subjects did not meet the diagnostic criteria of narcolepsy type 2, and 23.9% didn't show any two sleep-onset rapid eye movement periods in multiple sleep latency during the 5-year follow-up. Therefore narcolepsy type 1 (narcolepsy-cataplexy) is a well-defined syndrome, with the presentation clearly related to the known consequences of destruction of hypocretin/orexin neurons. Narcolepsy type 2 covers patients with clinical and test variability over time, thus bringing into question the usage of the term "narcolepsy" to label these patients.

Effect of psychostimulants on blood pressure profile and endothelial function in narcolepsy.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of psychostimulant treatments on the 24-hour blood pressure (BP) profile of patients with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1). METHODS: Heart rate (HR) and BP were monitored for 24 hours and morning endothelial function was evaluated in 160 consecutive patients with NT1: 68 untreated (41 male, median age 34.9 years), 54 treated (32 male, median age 40.9 years), and 38 evaluated twice (21 male, median age 32 years), before and during treatment. RESULTS: Patients treated for NT1 showed higher 24-hour, daytime, and nighttime diastolic BP and HR values compared with the untreated group. Similarly, HR as well as 24-hour and daytime systolic BP were increased during treatment in the group evaluated twice. The combination of stimulant and anticataplectic drugs showed a synergistic effect on BP, without differences among stimulant categories. Based on 24-hour BP monitoring, hypertension was diagnosed in 58% of treated patients and in 40.6% of untreated patients. After adjustments for age, sex, and body mass index, the percentage of REM sleep remained associated with 24-hour hypertension in untreated and treated patients. Endothelial function was comparable in treated and untreated patients. CONCLUSIONS: The finding that patients with NT1 treated with psychostimulants have higher diastolic BP and HR than untreated patients suggests an increased long-term risk of cardiovascular diseases that requires careful follow-up and specific management.