It causes cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and accelerates aging. I am talking about disturbing the circadian rhythm. This has been proven by three of this year’s Nobel laureates in medicine: Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young. They described the molecular mechanisms that regulate the circadian processes in our body.
The Nobel Prize in the amount of CZK 9 million (approx. EUR 940) will be shared equally by three scientists from the United States – Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young. Prof. Elżbieta Pyza from the Department of Biology and Cell Imaging of the Jagiellonian University explains that the awarded scientists conducted research on fruit flies. “However, the discovered mechanisms can be transposed to all mammals,” he says.
Internal clock
– We have known for a long time that living organisms, including humans, have an internal, biological clock, says hematologist Prof. Jędrzejczak. He says that already in the XNUMXth century astronomer Jean Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan, when he found that mimosa leaves open towards the sun during the day and close at dusk, decided to check what would happen if it was in the dark all the time . He found that irrespective of daylight, the leaves behave according to their circadian rhythm, that is, they open during the day, although it is dark. The Nobel Prize-winning discovery made it clear that it was a mechanism regulated by several genes. Our biological clock regulates important bodily functions such as hormone levels, blood pressure, sleep, body temperature, and metabolism. We feel the operation of our circadian rhythm most when we travel and change time zones. We are then affected by the so-called jet lag. We can easily switch our watch on the wrist, but it is more difficult to do it with our biological clock. We wake up in the middle of the night feeling refreshed and hungry. We need time to adapt to the new daily schedule, which is often associated with many unpleasant ailments.
As emphasized by prof. Pyza, the biological rhythm is very important. It affects the condition, longevity and is associated with many diseases. Disorders of circadian rhythms cause not only sleep problems, but are associated with such diseases as diabetes, obesity, cancer, mental disorders, including depression. Failure to adjust our lifestyle to the internal clock may increase the risk of various diseases. Awarded scientists, by studying fruit flies, isolated a gene that controls normal daily biological rhythms. They showed that it codes for a protein that accumulates in the cell at night and then degrades during the day. They then identified additional protein components in the process.
Further research
According to prof. Pyzy, this discovery opens new directions of scientific research. “We still don’t know how the master clock, which is governed by the brain and the clocks of internal organs, communicates with each other.” Liver cells isolated from this organ and kept alive also work in a certain way in circadian rhythms, so they also have their own clock, which must correlate with this parent – he explains. Prof. Jędrzejczak says that research is being conducted to check whether the administration of drugs at specific times affects the effects of therapy. It is about choosing the best moment in the internal daily cycle for a given drug. Prof. Pyza adds that we have not yet managed to manipulate our biological clock too much and adjust it to our needs. – The only example of interference is the administration of the hormone melatonin, which is secreted by the body only at night. Taking melatonin can make it easier to fall asleep when we change time zones and our internal clock diverge completely with sunrise and sunset. – says. Many discoveries related to the clock are still ahead of us.