New smart drug could beat jet lag in half the time with just a single pill

Woke up in a new time zone, but your brain stayed home?You’re not alone.Each year, more than 100 million people experience jet lag — a temporary sleep disorder that occurs when rapid long-distance travel disrupts the body’s internal clock, known as the circadian rhythm.That mismatch can trigger a wide range of symptoms as the body works to adjust to its new local time, including sleep disruption, brain fog, headaches, extreme fatigue, mood changes and general misery.  But relief may be coming.

Japanese scientists say they’ve created a drug that can “reset” the internal clock forward, dramatically shortening jet lag recovery time in mice — and perhaps, eventually, in humans.Such a treatment could be a game-changer for frequent long-haul travelers and for people who work night shifts or rotating schedules, who often endure a chronic form of jet lag due to irregular sleep-wake cycles.In the study, researchers highlighted a new oral compound called Mic-628.The drug works by activating a key internal clock gene known as Per1.It does this by binding to CRY1, a protein that normally suppresses Per1, allowing the gene to become active.

The result is a forward shift of the circadian rhythm not only in the brain’s master clock, but also in the thousands of peripheral clocks found in nearly every cell, tissue and organ throughout the body.These peripheral clocks regulate everything from metabolism and sleep cycles to hormones, cellular maintenance and daily variations in body temperature and blood pressure.

When tested in mice, a single oral dose of Mic-628 realigned circadian rhythms in just four days, compared with seven days in untreated mice.The findings suggest the compound may serve as a prototype “smart drug” for managing jet lag or shift work.

This could be especially useful for eastward travel, which requires advancing the internal clock — a process that normally takes longer and is physiologically harder than delaying it, as occurs with we...