“Suvorexant Sleeping Pill May Reduce Harmful Alzheimer’s Proteins, Study Shows”

Now, however, a group of American researchers has found out how the vicious circle can possibly be broken.

The sleeping pill suvorexant, available with a doctor’s prescription under the name Belsomra, has been shown to reduce the harmful clumps of two types of proteins in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s.

In particular, it concerns the proteins amyloid and tau.

This is according to a study published in Annals of Neurology

While preliminary results suggest that the pill may slow the progression of Alzheimer’s, the researchers do not recommend take the sleeping pill to prevent the disease.

More studies are needed to establish the connection with certainty and possibly recommend a specific dose. The results also contradict previous research that indicated that sleeping pills can actually increase the risk of Alzheimer’s in certain groups of elderly people

One sample every half hour

The study took place over two nights among 38 people aged 45 to 65 who had not yet shown signs of cognitive decline or experienced sleep problems.

The researchers started by taking samples of the participants’ spinal fluid.

An hour later, they gave the participants a high or low dose of suvorexant or a placebo.

For the next 36 hours, the researchers took samples from the participants every two hours to measure how their levels of the two proteins, amyloid and tau, changed.

Effect is obvious

The results showed that the sleeping pills had a clear effect.

In the spinal fluid of the people who took the high dose of suvorexant, the level of the protein amyloid fell by 10-20 percent.

At the same time, the level of a specific tau protein, hyperphosphorylated tau, dropped by 10-15 percent.

There was no significant difference between protein levels in people taking a low dose of suvorexant and those taking a placebo.

According to the researchers’ findings, concentrations of hyperphosphorylated tau increased again within 24 hours of taking the sleeping pills, while amyloid levels remained lower in the high-dose group than in the placebo group.

When the researchers gave the high-dose sleeping pill group a second dose on the second night of the study, both levels of the two types of protein dropped again.

The researchers hope that future studies will show whether treatment with the sleeping pill has a lasting effect on protein levels in the brain – and likely slows down the risk of Alzheimer’s as well.