Prevention and finding a way to catch narcolepsy early may thus be key, for example by measuring hypocretin levels early in subjects at risk or finding a way to measure the autoimmune process. We also need to use the finding of low hypocretins to improve diagnosis. All our results are in patients with cataplexy. We look at the hypocretin genes of many cases who had a strong family history and found no mutations. Other genes and systems must be involved.
Some results suggest a role of hypocretins in regulating appetite and general body energy.
We need to better understand the connection between sleep, energy metabolism, feeding and hypocretins in narcolepsy. Thank you, Dr. Mignot, for your comments. We look forward to more breakthroughs from your team in the future.