EU-NN Young Scientist Award 2021
Sponsored by the Klaus Grawe Foundation at the 12thMeeting of the European Narcolepsy Network (EU-NN) on September 18-19 2021 in Berlin.
The EU-NN aims to facilitate clinical and scientific progress in narcolepsy and other hypersomnias of central origin.
The award went to Helene Mathilde AEgidius from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Title of the work: Pre-treatment of blood samples reveal normal blood hypocretin/orexin signal in narcolepsy type I
The hypocretin/orexin system is very important for sleep, wakefulness and energy homeostasis. A lack of hypocretin signaling causes narcoleypsy type 1. A hallmark of this disease is a low concentration of cerebrospinal fluid hypocretin-1/orexin-A peptide. The high diagnostic value of this measurement goes along with the discomfort and risk of a lumbar puncture.
H. Aegidius research (and the contributions of the co-authors) shows that for narcolepsy type 1 hypocretin-1 immunoreactivity in blood samples do not differ from the levels detected in control samples by lumbar puncture. But before the blood samples have to be specifically treated. The establishment of this new method does make the diagnosis of narcolepsy type 1 much easier with much lower risk for the patients.
Full article, puplished March 22, 2021:
Pre-treatment of blood samples reveal normal blood …