Over 10% of Americans suffer from chronic sleep disorders, with an estimated annual cost of $100 billion. Drug and alcohol addiction severely disrupt sleep, and sleep disorders increase the risk of addiction and relapse. Understanding the mechanisms that regulate sleep is thus critical for preventing and treating addiction. Furthermore, most drugs used to treat insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, act by inhibiting GABA receptors, which are relatively non-specific targets for sleep. These drugs only ameliorate some symptoms and are often addictive. Thus, new drugs that target more specific sleep regulators are needed. We recently established zebrafish as a vertebrate system for studying the genetic and neural mechanisms that regulate sleep. Zebrafish are a useful model for these studies because they have the basic brain structures and genes that are thought to regulate mammalian sleep, but are also optically transparent and amenable to high- throughput screens and behavior assays. This proposal has four specific aims. First, we will use genetic and pharmacological approaches to determine which adenosine receptors regulate zebrafish sleep/wake states. Second, we will determine which neural substrates are used by adenosine to regulate zebrafish sleep. Third, we will test the hypothesis that adenosine promotes sleep by inhibiting the Hypocretin system. Fourth, we will test the hypothesis that adenosine regulates sleep by modulating the activities of other sleep regulatory systems. These experiments will clarify how adenosine regulates sleep, which may provide clues to the basis of sleep disorders and suggest novel therapies for sleep disorders and addiction.

Public Health Relevance

Drug and alcohol addiction severely disrupt sleep, and sleep disorders increase the risk of addiction and relapse. Understanding the mechanisms that regulate sleep is thus critical for preventing and treating addiction. This proposal will use zebrafish to determine the genetic and neurological mechanisms through which adenosine regulates sleep. The proposed studies will improve understanding of the genetic and neuronal mechanisms that regulate sleep and may suggest new strategies to treat sleep and addiction disorders.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01DA031367-01
Application #
8085039
Study Section
Molecular Neuropharmacology and Signaling Study Section (MNPS)
Program Officer
Satterlee, John S
Project Start
2011-09-01
Project End
2016-03-31
Budget Start
2011-09-01
Budget End
2012-03-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$350,550
Indirect Cost
Name
California Institute of Technology
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
009584210
City
Pasadena
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
91125
Chen, Audrey; Chiu, Cindy N; Mosser, Eric A et al. (2016) QRFP and Its Receptors Regulate Locomotor Activity and Sleep in Zebrafish. J Neurosci 36:1823-40
Chen, Shijia; Chiu, Cindy N; McArthur, Kimberly L et al. (2016) TRP channel mediated neuronal activation and ablation in freely behaving zebrafish. Nat Methods 13:147-50
Chiu, Cindy N; Rihel, Jason; Lee, Daniel A et al. (2016) A Zebrafish Genetic Screen Identifies Neuromedin U as a Regulator of Sleep/Wake States. Neuron 89:842-56
Singh, Chanpreet; Oikonomou, Grigorios; Prober, David A (2015) Norepinephrine is required to promote wakefulness and for hypocretin-induced arousal in zebrafish. Elife 4:e07000
Gandhi, Avni V; Mosser, Eric A; Oikonomou, Grigorios et al. (2015) Melatonin is required for the circadian regulation of sleep. Neuron 85:1193-9
Liu, Justin; Merkle, Florian T; Gandhi, Avni V et al. (2015) Evolutionarily conserved regulation of hypocretin neuron specification by Lhx9. Development 142:1113-24
Chen, Shijia; Oikonomou, Grigorios; Chiu, Cindy N et al. (2013) A large-scale in vivo analysis reveals that TALENs are significantly more mutagenic than ZFNs generated using context-dependent assembly. Nucleic Acids Res 41:2769-78
Chiu, Cindy N; Prober, David A (2013) Regulation of zebrafish sleep and arousal states: current and prospective approaches. Front Neural Circuits 7:58
Rossi, Paolo; Barbieri, Christopher M; Aramini, James M et al. (2013) Structures of apo- and ssDNA-bound YdbC from Lactococcus lactis uncover the function of protein domain family DUF2128 and expand the single-stranded DNA-binding domain proteome. Nucleic Acids Res 41:2756-68