| Literature DB >> 18291691 |
Sebastiaan Overeem1, John Logan Black, Gert Jan Lammers.
Abstract
Narcolepsy with cataplexy is a debilitating sleep disorder with an estimated prevalence of about 0.05%. Narcolepsy is caused by a selective loss of hypocretin (orexin) producing neurons in the perifornical hypothalamus. Based on the very strong association with the HLA subtype DQB1*0602, it is currently hypothesized narcolepsy is caused by an autoimmune-mediated process directed at the hypocretin neurons. So far however, studies focusing on general markers of (auto)immune activation, as well as humoral immunity against the hypocretin system have not yielded consistent results supporting this hypothesis.Entities:
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Year: 2008 PMID: 18291691 PMCID: PMC2366136 DOI: 10.1016/j.smrv.2007.07.010
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Sleep Med Rev ISSN: 1087-0792 Impact factor: 11.609