The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, indicates that lemborexant prevents the harmful buildup of an abnormal form of the protein tau. The authors found that by blocking orexin receptors, lemborexant prevents excess tags from being added to tau. While zolpidem increased sleep in the mice, it did not demonstrate the protective effects against tau accumulation seen with lemborexant. Holtzman speculated that this discrepancy might be due to female mice in the study developing less-severe neurodegeneration initially, making potential drug benefits more difficult to detect. The pharmaceutical company Eisai provided lemborexant for the study as part of a research collaboration with WashU Medicine.