Scientists have identified a naturally occurring molecule that may help ease jet lag and lead to new treatments for sleep problems brought on by working unusual hours, according to
Medical News Today.
In a new study in mice, researchers found the molecule known as VIP synchronizes brain cells that regulate the body's biological clock, allowing them to reset quickly to a new light-dark cycle after a night shift, overnight flight, or other interruption in normal sleep patterns.
The researchers — from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of California-Santa Barbara — reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In mammals, they noted the master biological clock is a cluster of 20,000 neurons that form the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) — a knot of brain tissue about the size of a grain of rice, which in humans sits on the brain's midline.
Each brain cell in the SCN keeps time, but individual cells have different rhythms.
But they all signal one another using VIP (vasoactive intestinal polypeptide), which helps them stay synchronized, as Erik Herzog, a professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, explained:
"They're like a society where each cell has its own opinion on what time of day it is. They need to agree on the time of day in order to coordinate daily rhythms in alertness and metabolism."
He says if you get rid of VIP or the receptor for VIP, the cells fall out of step with each other.