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Research led by Gui de Chauliac Hospital in Montpellier, France, and the University of Bologna in Italy reports that oveporexton improves wakefulness and reduces cataplexy episodes in patients with narcolepsy type 1. Findings suggest a potential therapeutic alternative to existing narcolepsy treatments without hepatotoxic effects associated with other treatment types.

Narcolepsy type 1 is a neurological disorder marked by excessive daytime sleepiness and episodes of muscle weakness known as cataplexy. Orexin, a neuropeptide crucial for regulating wakefulness and preventing rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep transitions, is deficient in patients with narcolepsy type 1. Current treatments primarily address symptoms without targeting the underlying orexin system itself.

Previous efforts have successfully targeted orexin receptor 2 (OX2R) to restore wakefulness and reduce cataplexy in patients with OX2R-targeting drugs. Liver-related side effects have so far limited clinical use, and the need for safe OX2R-targeting agents remains.

Currently, half of patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia—two types of cancer that affect blood cells—do not respond adequately to treatment with CAR-T cells. The therapy involves harvesting the patient’s own defense cells (T lymphocytes), modifying them in the laboratory to make them capable of destroying tumor cells, and reinjecting them into the body. These refractory cases usually relapse after conventional immunotherapy.

To overcome this problem, Brazilian researchers have developed a more powerful version of CAR-T cells. The details of the research were published in the journal Cancer Research.

CAR-T cell immunotherapy is revolutionary and has saved many people’s lives in recent years. However, there are still a significant proportion of patients who don’t respond to this treatment.

Scientists have long been fascinated with the physiological changes that birds undergo before and during migration. Some birds eat so much fat before their journeys that they double in body weight. In some species, their hearts are enlarged to pump more blood, or their digestive tracts grow and then shrink. But researchers have only recently started to explore at a fundamental level how migratory birds get the energy required to keep themselves aloft for days on end without eating.

Last year, two independent groups published research that explored migratory bird physiology in the lab and field to probe what happens at the subcellular level that allows birds to cover vast distances. They both found answers in biology’s most fundamental engine: mitochondria.

Their studies show how small changes in the number, shape, efficiency and interconnectedness of mitochondria can have huge physiological consequences that contribute to birds’ long-duration, continent-spanning flights.