Developing therapeutics to treat neurological disorders by improving sleep architecture

Sleep dysregulation underpins chronic neurological disease

Sleep dysregulation becomes more prevalent with age and is a recognized risk factor for neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Disruptions in sleep architecture manifest as increased fragmentation and loss of slow wave sleep (SWS), the deepest and most restorative stage of Non-REM3 (NREM3) sleep that is essential for consolidation of declarative memory (Tao et al., 2023) and effective glymphatic flow (Fultz et al., 2019).

By selectively enhancing and stabilizing SWS pharmacologically, AstronauTx aims to improve sleep architecture, enhance cognitive performance and slow cognitive decline in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurological disorders.

Slow oscillations are a key feature of SWS and a primary driver of glymphatic flow, fluid-based clearance of neurotoxic waste from the brain. With aging, slow oscillations decline and are further impaired in neurodegenerative conditions like AD, reducing glymphatic efficiency and accelerating the accumulation of neurotoxic proteins, such as β-amyloid, tau and α-synuclein.

By pharmacologically enhancing slow oscillations and restoring glymphatic function, AstronauTx aims to reduce pathological protein accumulation, offering a disease-modifying strategy for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.