2023年7月21日

大約三分之一的心髒病患者睡眠問題的經驗,現在,一項新的研究表明,心髒疾病影響睡眠荷爾蒙褪黑激素的生產在鬆果體。兩個器官之間的聯係是一個神經節在頸部區域,根據由一組研究人員在《科學》雜誌上發表的論文在慕尼黑工業大學。研究演示了一個前所未知的神經節的作用,並指出可能的治療方法。褪黑激素水平可以減少患者的心肌疾病,例如心髒病發作後,已經有一段時間了。這通常被視為一個進一步的例子的心髒病行為在整個身體係統。團隊與斯蒂芬·恩格爾哈特博士的藥理學和毒理學教授慕尼黑工業大學,和第一作者Karin齊格勒博士已經表明,有直接原因從心髒病患者睡眠障礙。神經節作為電氣開關箱”的問題在我們的工作中,我們表明,心肌影響一個器官,乍一看似乎沒有直接的聯係,”恩格爾哈特在一份新聞稿中說。褪黑素是鬆果體,位於大腦。像心髒一樣,它是通過自主神經係統控製,調節體內的無意識的過程。相關的神經起源於神經節等地方。 Particularly important for the heart and pineal gland is the superior cervical ganglion. “To get a clear sense of our results, imagine the ganglion as an electrical switchbox. In a patient suffering from sleep disturbances following a heart disease, you can think of a problem with one wire causing a fire to break out in the switchbox and then spreading to another wire,” says Engelhart in the release. Nerve Connection to Pineal Gland Destroyed in Mice and Humans The team discovered that macrophages—cells that eat dead cells—accumulate in the cervical ganglion of mice with heart disease. The exact mechanisms behind this are still unknown. The macrophages cause inflammation and scarring in the ganglion and the destruction of nerve cells. In mice, as in humans, long fibers extending from these nerve cells, called axons, lead to the pineal gland. At advanced stages of disease, there was a substantial decrease in the number of axons connecting the gland to the nervous system. There was less melatonin in the bodies of the animals and their day/night rhythm was disrupted. Comparable organic effects were seen in humans. The team investigated the pineal glands in nine heart patients. Compared to the control group, significantly fewer axons were found. As with the mice, the superior cervical ganglion in the humans with heart disease showed scarring and was noticeably enlarged. Starting Point for New Drugs The researchers assume that the negative effects of the dead axons become permanent at an advanced stage. “In an early stage we were able to return melatonin production in mice to the original level by using drugs to destroy the macrophages in the superior cervical ganglion,” says Ziegler in a release. “First, this demonstrates the role of the ganglion in this phenomenon. And second, it inspires hope that we can develop drugs to prevent irreparable sleep disturbances in heart disease.” That is one of the tasks the team wishes to address in the coming years. Investigating Ganglia for Other Possible Connections Along with new hope for a large number of heart patients that a treatment will be found for sleep disturbances, Engelhardt sees the study as a reason to look at the ganglia from a new vantage point. “New methods such as spatial single-cell sequencing make it possible to investigate individual nerve cells much more closely. Our study could prompt researchers to start systematically searching for connections between other diseases in organs linked via ganglia acting as switchboxes and to look at ganglia as starting points in the search for new drugs,” he says in the release. Engelhardt believes that ganglia could also become important from a diagnostic standpoint. Because all of the cervical ganglia in the heart patients they examined were significantly enlarged, the researchers believe that this may be an indicator of heart failure. The size of the ganglion can be checked easily with a conventional ultrasound device. If the results are confirmed in further studies, it may be advisable to order more extensive checks of the heart when the ganglion is found to be enlarged.