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Pandi-Perumal SR, Saravanan KM, Paul S, Namasivayam GP, Chidambaram SB. Waking Up the Sleep Field: An Overview on the Implications of Genetics and Bioinformatics of Sleep. Mol Biotechnol 2024; 66:919-931. [PMID: 38198051 DOI: 10.1007/s12033-023-01009-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2023] [Accepted: 11/28/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2024]
Abstract
Sleep genetics is an intriguing, as yet less understood, understudied, emerging area of biological and medical discipline. A generalist may not be aware of the current status of the field given the variety of journals that have published studies on the genetics of sleep and the circadian clock over the years. For researchers venturing into this fascinating area, this review thus includes fundamental features of circadian rhythm and genetic variables impacting sleep-wake cycles. Sleep/wake pathway medication exposure and susceptibility are influenced by genetic variations, and the responsiveness of sleep-related medicines is influenced by several functional polymorphisms. This review highlights the features of the circadian timing system and then a genetic perspective on wakefulness and sleep, as well as the relationship between sleep genetics and sleep disorders. Neurotransmission genes, as well as circadian and sleep/wake receptors, exhibit functional variability. Experiments on animals and humans have shown that these genetic variants impact clock systems, signaling pathways, nature, amount, duration, type, intensity, quality, and quantity of sleep. In this regard, the overview covers research on sleep genetics, the genomic properties of several popular model species used in sleep studies, homologs of mammalian genes, sleep disorders, and related genes. In addition, the study includes a brief discussion of sleep, narcolepsy, and restless legs syndrome from the viewpoint of a model organism. It is suggested that the understanding of genetic clues on sleep function and sleep disorders may, in future, result in an evidence-based, personalized treatment of sleep disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seithikurippu R Pandi-Perumal
- Centre for Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, Central Animal Facility, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysuru, Karnataka, 570015, India
- Saveetha Medical College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 602105, India
- Division of Research and Development, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, 144411, India
| | - Konda Mani Saravanan
- Department of Biotechnology, Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600073, India
| | - Sayan Paul
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, TX, 77555, USA
| | - Ganesh Pandian Namasivayam
- Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (WPI-iCeMS), A210, Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study, Yoshida Ushinomiya-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan
| | - Saravana Babu Chidambaram
- Centre for Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, Central Animal Facility, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysuru, Karnataka, 570015, India.
- Department of Pharmacology, JSS College of Pharmacy, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysuru, Karnataka, 570015, India.
- Special Interest Group - Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Neurosciences, JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, Mysuru, Karnataka, 570015, India.
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Fernandez FX, Perlis ML. Animal models of human insomnia. J Sleep Res 2023; 32:e13845. [PMID: 36748845 PMCID: PMC10404637 DOI: 10.1111/jsr.13845] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Insomnia disorder (chronic sleep continuity disturbance) is a debilitating condition affecting 5%-10% of the adult population worldwide. To date, researchers have attempted to model insomnia in animals through breeding strategies that create pathologically short-sleeping individuals or with drugs and environmental contexts that directly impose sleeplessness. While these approaches have been invaluable for identifying insomnia susceptibility genes and mapping the neural networks that underpin sleep-wake regulation, they fail to capture concurrently several of the core clinical diagnostic features of insomnia disorder in humans, where sleep continuity disturbance is self-perpetuating, occurs despite adequate sleep opportunity, and is often not accompanied by significant changes in sleep duration or architecture. In the present review, we discuss these issues and then outline ways animal models can be used to develop approaches that are more ecologically valid in their recapitulation of chronic insomnia's natural aetiology and pathophysiology. Conditioning of self-generated sleep loss with these methods promises to create a better understanding of the neuroadaptations that maintain insomnia, including potentially within the infralimbic cortex, a substrate at the crossroads of threat habituation and sleep.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Michael L. Perlis
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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