Circadian Rhythms, Disease and Chronotherapy

📖 Top 20% JournalSep 22, 2021Journal of biological rhythms

Body Clock Patterns, Illness, and Time-Based Treatments

AI simplified

Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Circadian clocks are biological timing mechanisms that generate 24-h rhythms of physiology and behavior.

Mismatches between internal body clocks and daily environmental cycles may lead to physiological disruption and disease.
Circadian clocks have been shown to modulate responses to food intake, exercise, and infections.
Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of circadian physiology could enable targeted therapies for disease prevention and treatment.
Recent advances in circadian research suggest potential therapeutic applications that consider patient circadian rhythms.

AI simplified

Circadian clocks are biological timing mechanisms that generate 24-h rhythms of physiology and behavior, exemplified by cycles of sleep/wake, hormone release, and metabolism. The adaptive value of clocks is evident when internal body clocks and daily environmental cycles are mismatched, such as in the case of shift work and jet lag or even mistimed eating, all of which are associated with physiological disruption and disease. Studies with animal and human models have also unraveled an important role of functional circadian clocks in modulating cellular and organismal responses to physiological cues (ex., food intake, exercise), pathological insults (e.g. virus and parasite infections), and medical interventions (e.g. medication). With growing knowledge of the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying circadian physiology and pathophysiology, it is becoming possible to target circadian rhythms for disease prevention and treatment. In this review, we discuss recent advances in circadian research and the potential for therapeutic applications that take patient circadian rhythms into account in treating disease.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View full text (PDF) ↗View full text (XML) ↗View full text (PDF) ↗View full text ↗