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It seemed to have worked in mice https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.1603325113

It seems like CDT worked its way into the mouse’s brain and destroyed the orexin receptors. Could this happen in humans too? Destruction of orexin receptors is what is believed to cause narcolepsy.

I want to test it in humans.

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    $\begingroup$ Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. $\endgroup$
    – Community Bot
    Apr 26 at 15:56
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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to Biology.SE. The answer would seem to be 'yes', which suggests that you might want to reformulate your question. Questions that ask "could this happen" or "is it possible" often aren't a good fit here since they tend to generate opinions. It might help to tell us why you care (context often helps clarify what sort of answer is useful). Please take the tour and consult the help center starting with How to Ask for details. $\endgroup$
    – tyersome
    Apr 26 at 18:44
  • $\begingroup$ Okay thanks, I edited my question, hopefully it fares better. $\endgroup$
    – Kait Limberg
    Apr 27 at 5:22
  • $\begingroup$ Uhh, please don't test in humans? O $\endgroup$
    – Douglas Myers-Turnbull
    Apr 29 at 2:08
  • $\begingroup$ Why would you want to do this? In addition to appearing to suggest something that would be extremely unethical (if not outright illegal), it sounds completely unproductive (and needlessly baroque if you do actually want to harm someone). I'm going to assume you aren't actually as monstrous as this makes you sound, but please take a step back and make sure you are expressing yourself clearly! $\endgroup$
    – tyersome
    May 2 at 0:51

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Uhh, please don't test in humans?

But conceptually, it should be about the same in humans.

That Bernard-Valnet PNAS paper presents evidence that these autoreactive CD8+ T-cells can trigger a narcolepsy-like phenotype in rodents, and it's widely accepted that a traumatic brain injury (TBI) can (probably pretty rarely) cause narcolepsy.

So, widespread death of orexinergic neurons probably can cause narcolepsy. But it's not know whether that's a common cause. An underlying cause (pathogenesis) could result in both idiopathic narcolepsy AND loss of orexinergic neurons.

In fact, Bernard-Valnet et al. say the same:

it is currently unknown whether autoantibodies precede or are the consequence of brain tissue destruction in narcolepsy

Though you might be able to give your human experimental subjects a long-term or permanent neurological disorder, it might not be the most useful model.

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