I have an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and I am very skeptical that such a drug can be found. Can’t talk to these specific genes in particular but genes are often turned on in different ways and in different parts of the brain, and lead to different effects based on which genes are turned on or off with them. Now because of the gene interaction in the background, the same receptor can cause a reverse effect when activated in one part of the brain or another. Additionally, each neurotransmitter has upwards of 20 different receptors in the brain. Also, every single synapse has multiple different receptors.
Drugs on the other hand hit all the receptors of a certain type in all of the brain. It’s a very indiscriminant effect. The diseases that medications seem to be capable of fixing are diseases that lead to a brain-wide shortage of a neurotransmitter, which are fixed by prescribing the transmitter or a medication that causes its recycling and reuptake (like levo-dopa for parkinson’s).
I’ve head a neuroscientist say once that treating disease with medication is like “fixing a car by pouring oil indiscriminantly under the hood,” and I agree. One example for that is SSRIs for depression. Serotonin does a lot of things in the brain - it also has an important role in motor functions. SSRIs help depression, but the effect isn’t very direct (people describe having some additional energy, not necessarily being ‘cured’) and has many, many side effects because they also affect all the other serotonin concentrations all over the brain.
Even when compared to mood control, sleep is also a very delicate, very carefully-orchestrated process in the brain. It’s controlled by similar centres as breathing, heart rate, and balance. Sure there are some rare genes that contribute to less sleep but I doubt you’ll find a drug that will not have severe side effects.
On a different note—I haven’t read her studies in particular but the main reason I left neuroscience was because the standard practices, especially in human and animal research, seemed to me so lacking. The recruitment process which you mentioned alone can be extremely biased, and is extremely hard to control for. The sample sizes are also always quite small. I wouldn’t be surprised if this group is skewed towards top 1/300th of people with this gene, and that they have numerous other genes and environmental factors that makes them more ‘protected’ from deprivation but also more likely to reach recruitment for this type of study.
TL;DR gene expression is tightly controlled over time and space and drugs are not. This is especially true for sleep. I am skeptic drugs will work at this fine scale since no current drugs do.
I have an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and I am very skeptical that such a drug can be found. Can’t talk to these specific genes in particular but genes are often turned on in different ways and in different parts of the brain, and lead to different effects based on which genes are turned on or off with them. Now because of the gene interaction in the background, the same receptor can cause a reverse effect when activated in one part of the brain or another. Additionally, each neurotransmitter has upwards of 20 different receptors in the brain. Also, every single synapse has multiple different receptors.
Drugs on the other hand hit all the receptors of a certain type in all of the brain. It’s a very indiscriminant effect. The diseases that medications seem to be capable of fixing are diseases that lead to a brain-wide shortage of a neurotransmitter, which are fixed by prescribing the transmitter or a medication that causes its recycling and reuptake (like levo-dopa for parkinson’s).
I’ve head a neuroscientist say once that treating disease with medication is like “fixing a car by pouring oil indiscriminantly under the hood,” and I agree. One example for that is SSRIs for depression. Serotonin does a lot of things in the brain - it also has an important role in motor functions. SSRIs help depression, but the effect isn’t very direct (people describe having some additional energy, not necessarily being ‘cured’) and has many, many side effects because they also affect all the other serotonin concentrations all over the brain.
Even when compared to mood control, sleep is also a very delicate, very carefully-orchestrated process in the brain. It’s controlled by similar centres as breathing, heart rate, and balance. Sure there are some rare genes that contribute to less sleep but I doubt you’ll find a drug that will not have severe side effects.
On a different note—I haven’t read her studies in particular but the main reason I left neuroscience was because the standard practices, especially in human and animal research, seemed to me so lacking. The recruitment process which you mentioned alone can be extremely biased, and is extremely hard to control for. The sample sizes are also always quite small. I wouldn’t be surprised if this group is skewed towards top 1/300th of people with this gene, and that they have numerous other genes and environmental factors that makes them more ‘protected’ from deprivation but also more likely to reach recruitment for this type of study.
TL;DR gene expression is tightly controlled over time and space and drugs are not. This is especially true for sleep. I am skeptic drugs will work at this fine scale since no current drugs do.