Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/1018487
BY THOMAS CROCKER Study Provides a View of the Human Chronobiome A GROUP OF RESE ARCHERS HA S IDENTIFIED AND DESCRIBED RHY THMIC, TIME—REGUL ATED HUMAN PHYSIOLOGICAL CHAR ACTERISTICS IN A NON—CONTROLLEDSE T TING Ÿ A FINDING WITH WIDE—R ANGING IMPLICATIONS FOR PRECISION MEDICINE. CLINICI A NS A ND RE SE A RCHER S widely acknowledge time-of-day variability in disease expression and drug e¬ cacy. Heart attacks and strokes, for example, are more likely to occur in the morning, notes a 2016 editorial in Circulation. Cardiologists often instruct patients to take cholesterol-lowering statins at night when enzymes that produce cholesterol are most active. Individuals with asthma are more likely to experience coughing at night or in the early morning, reports the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California have found that disruptions in the circadian rhythm can set the stage for the development of cancerous tumors. "Every tissue in the body has its own, independent circadian clock," says Michael Hughes, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Genetics in the Division of Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "These clocks are synchronized by the central oscillator in the hypothalamus. Consequently, most every aspect of normal physiology is under the infl uence of circadian rhythms." NAVIGATING BARRIERS The quest to understand human biorhythms is relatively new and has traditionally taken place in controlled settings using forced desynchrony protocols, according to Carsten Skarke, MD, Research Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Institute for Translational Medicine and Timely Information: 0 6