{"id":4127,"date":"2018-09-14T11:08:26","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T07:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/?p=4127"},"modified":"2018-09-14T11:08:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T07:08:26","slug":"using-the-body-clock-to-make-drugs-more-effective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/2018\/09\/14\/using-the-body-clock-to-make-drugs-more-effective\/","title":{"rendered":"Using the body clock to make drugs more effective"},"content":{"rendered":"
Researchers created a database for the daily circadian rhythms of genetic activity. The findings may help physicians time the delivery of drugs in accordance with a person’s body clock, boosting treatment for cardiovascular disease and other conditions.<\/div>\n

Our\u00a0circadian rhythm, or body clock, regulates key aspects of our health and daily lives.<\/p>\n

Our body clock controls sleep-wake cycles, digestion, and body temperature, among several other functions.<\/p>\n

Scientists have tied disruption to one’s circadian rhythm to a range of physical disorders, such as\u00a0diabetes\u00a0and\u00a0obesity, as well as some\u00a0mental health\u00a0conditions, such as\u00a0depression\u00a0and\u00a0bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n

More recently, scientists have found links between sleep-wake cycle disruptions and the onset of\u00a0Alzheimer’s disease.<\/p>\n

Conversely, specialists use\u00a0chronotherapy\u00a0\u2014 or the process of progressively adjusting a person’s bedtime and waking time \u2014 to time the delivery of drugs so that it falls in line with circadian changes.<\/p>\n

In conditions such as cardiovascular disease or\u00a0high blood pressure, for example, chronotherapy has proven useful because some cardiovascular diseases \u2014 such as\u00a0heart attacks,\u00a0angina, and\u00a0stroke\u00a0\u2014 have a higher incidence in the morning.<\/p>\n

More recent research also suggests that our body clock \u2014 or the collection of proteins that interact within cells, regulating cellular activity and their corresponding genetic expressions \u2014 plays a key role in\u00a0cancer, and that chronotherapy could boost the effectiveness of\u00a0cancer treatment.<\/p>\n

In this context, researchers led by John Hogenesch, Ph.D. \u2014 a circadian biologist in the Divisions of Human Genetics and Immunobiology at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio \u2014 set out to create a database of daily genetic rhythms.<\/p>\n

Some of these genes can control the activity of drugs, which makes for an important contribution to the growing field of circadian medicine.<\/p>\n

The researchers detail their efforts in the journal\u00a0Science Translational Medicine,<\/em>\u00a0and Marc Ruben, Ph.D., is the first author of\u00a0the paper.<\/p>\n

Using cycling genes as drug targets<\/h2>\n

Hogenesch and team created a computer algorithm called cycling ordering by periodic structure to study how circadian rhythms control the changes in gene activity that occur throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the researchers used the algorithm to study the gene-to-tissue interactions of thousands of genes in the tissues of over 630 human participants.<\/p>\n

Of all the genes studied, 917 expressed proteins that help metabolize and absorb drugs, or that are drug targets themselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“<\/span>Overall this connects thousands of different drugs, both approved and experimental, to nearly 1,000 cycling genes […] We found that genes that cycle in the human cardiovascular system are targeted by many of these drugs.”<\/p>\n

Marc Ruben, Ph.D.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to the study authors, the genes for 136 drug targets were found to cycle rhythmically in at least one of the following four heart tissues: the atrial chamber, aorta, coronary artery, and the tibial artery.<\/p>\n

“We identified rhythms in gene expression across the body in a large and diverse group of people,” explains Hogenesch. “It doesn’t matter if you’re male, female, young, or old, or what your ethnicity is, your body’s internal clock regulates half your genome.”<\/p>\n

“This includes drug-metabolizing enzymes, transporters, and targets,” he says. “Now we are learning which drugs hit clock-regulated products and may benefit from optimizing administration time in people.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hogenesch cautions that more research is required before the findings can be applied to clinical practice.<\/p>\n

However, “As most of these drugs are safe and approved, this process should go much faster than traditional drug discovery, which can take a decade or more,” he concludes.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Medicalnews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers created a database for the daily circadian rhythms of genetic activity. The findings may help physicians time the delivery of drugs in accordance with a person’s body clock, boosting treatment for cardiovascular disease and other conditions. Our\u00a0circadian rhythm, or body clock, regulates key aspects of our health and daily lives. Our body clock controls …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4129,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions\/4129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}