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Review
. 2018 Feb;41(2):70-72.
doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2017.11.007.

Discovery of Hypocretin/Orexin Ushers in a New Era of Sleep Research

David A Prober  1
Affiliations
Review

Discovery of Hypocretin/Orexin Ushers in a New Era of Sleep Research

David A Prober. Trends Neurosci. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Prior to the 21st century, genetic mechanisms that regulate sleep were largely unknown. In 1998, de Lecea et al. [1] (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 1998; 95:322-327) and Sakurai et al. [2] (Cell 1998; 92: 573-585) reported the discovery of a gene they named hypocretin and orexin, respectively, which led to a revolution in our understanding of genetic and neuronal mechanisms that regulate sleep.

Keywords: arousal; hypocretin; orexin; sleep.

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References

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    1. Gautvik KM, et al. Overview of the most prevalent hypothalamus-specific mRNAs, as identified by directional tag PCR subtraction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996;93(16):8733–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chemelli RM, et al. Narcolepsy in orexin knockout mice: molecular genetics of sleep regulation. Cell. 1999;98(4):437–51. - PubMed
    1. Lin L, et al. The sleep disorder canine narcolepsy is caused by a mutation in the hypocretin (orexin) receptor 2 gene. Cell. 1999;98(3):365–76. - PubMed

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