Takeshi Sakurai - Böcker

The Orexin/Hypocretin System: Physiology and Pathophysiology provides an overview of all the recent exciting discoveries in the field as well as new findings such as ligand replacement and gene therapies in the animal models of narcolepsy. Several contributions cover sleep and the multiple systems involved in its regulation. Also covered are clinical applications of orexin/hypocretin agonists and antagonists for various diseases, several experimental methods for orexin/hypoccretin research and their limitations, and careful observations in the appropriate animal models of the disease.

This cutting-edge review of the orexin/hypocretin system sets the stage for advanced research on the pathological mechanisms underlying the loss of orexin/hypocretin neurons in humans, regulation of sleep and wakefulness by the orexin/hypocretin system, and the role of the orexin/hypocretin system in many other physiological processes, including feeding, autonomic regulation, and neuroendocrine regulation. Topics of interest include assessment of functions and the physiology of orexin/hypocretin, its pathophysiology in human narcolepsy-cataplexy, and possible treatments and pharmacology. The authors also introduce several experimental methods for orexin/hypocretin research, and, using multidisciplinary approaches, explain their uses and limitations.

This volume is intended for neuropharmacologists, psychopharmacologists, pharmacologists, pharmacists, sleep researchers, translational neuroscience researchers, and other basic researchers and clinical scientists interested in an interdisciplinary approach to sleep medicine. The level of the book is aiming at CNS researchers, drug development scientists, basic and clinical sleep researchers, as well as senior medical students and fellows in psychiatry and neurology. Orexin and Sleep provides a unique resource, giving a comprehensive and highly readable summary of the basic concepts in orexin biology and pharmacology along with clinical applications in sleep medicine in general, and narcolepsy in particular.