The olfactory bulb: A link between environmental agents and narcolepsy.

ABSTRACT

Narcolepsy with cataplexy is a lifelong sleep disorder associated with orexin/hypocretin deficiency in the central nervous system. In addition to a genetic predisposition, a variety of environmental factors, such as influenza viruses, have been implicated in the pathogenesis of the disease. In this article, a hypothesis is proposed that environmental agents access the olfactory bulb and trigger neuroinflammation, which in turn induces neurodegeneration of orexinergic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus and other neuronal subpopulations regulating the sleep-wake cycle, which triggers the development of narcolepsy.