Pills that eliminate jet lag and bring manic depression under control could be developed, after scientists found a drug which alters the body clock.
Certain types of obesity could also be tackled using new drugs which could reset malfunctioning body clocks.
All can be caused by problems with what biologists call our ‘circadian rhythms’, which determine not just sleep-wake cycles but also our metabolism.
Now a team of British and American scientists have found a drug which can slow down, kick start and reset the body clocks of mice.
It does this by altering a key enzyme which controls the process, called casein kinase 1.
Andrew Loudon, professor of animal biology at Manchester University, said previous research had only tinkered with the peripheral cogs of the clock.
“Up until now we haven’t had any drug that plays with the core clock itself,” he said Read more…
