Mechanisms of alcohol-induced sleep dysregulation in <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em>

Abstract

Alcohol consumption is known to disturb a variety of biological processes that affect normal physiological function. In the nervous system, alcohol is generally known to affect several molecular targets leading to an overall suppression of neuronal activity. As alcohol influences the nervous system, the organism produces a series of neuroadaptive changes that help restore neuronal homeostasis and that may lead to alcohol tolerance, dependence and ultimately addiction. Alcohol abuse can also disturb a number of biological processes, including a disruption of normal sleep patterns. As both alcohol addiction and sleep regulation are under homeostatic control, we hypothesize that these processes share a common mechanism. In this thesis, I explored the effect a set of circadian cells known as pdf neurons have in alcohol sensitivity and tolerance, using <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em> as a biological model. I found that these cells are important for the development of alcohol tolerance. Afterwards, I studied the effect alcohol has on sleep in general and found that alcohol affects not only sleep parameters but also the architecture of sleep and morning anticipation. Finally, we focused on understanding the role PDF neurons have in alcohol-induced sleep behaviors. As a result, we found that PDF neurons are important molecular mediators of alcohol-sleep interactions to occur.