**4. Future therapies**


#### *Narcolepsy Treatment: Present and Future DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99777*

barrier and act centrally via non-invasive routes of administration would be the most viable future therapy. On the other hand, a non-invasive method through intranasal administration of ORX, directing the drugs to the brain along the olfactory and trigeminal neural pathways, could also be of interest as it has been shown to decrease the amount of REM sleep and REM sleep is more stable, but no effect has been observedin regard to drowsiness. At present, intranasal hypocretin is not a viable treatment [10, 11].


#### **5. Conclusion**

Recent years have seen a resurgence of new lines of therapy for the treatment of narcolepsy. These new future prospects predict a promising prognosis in terms of being able to guarantee a better quality of life for patients with narcolepsy, perhaps even a possible correction of the hypocretin deficit, completely resolving the symptomatology and achieving complete control of the disease. Future lines of research

should be based on the discovery of new reliable biomarkers to be able to identify the patients who best respond to immunomodulators and, of course, on the discovery of the underlying mechanisms related to the destruction of hypocretinproducing neurons. On the other hand, we have highlighted the lack of clinical trials in some specific groups, such as pregnant women or the elderly population. In addition, further trials in patients with common comorbidities such as psychiatric disorders or cardiovascular risk factors would be of interest.
