A protein called sestrin could have many benefitsgood trainingbe responsible and be used as a remedy against muscle loss in old age. Whether it's a brisk walk through the park or an intensive workout in the gym - exercise is good for the body. But what if you could reap the benefits of a good workout without ever moving a muscle?
Sestrin against muscle loss in old age
Michigan Medicine researchers studying a class of naturally occurring proteins called sestrin have found that they can mimic many of the effects of exercise in flies and mice. The results could eventually help combat muscle loss due to aging and other causes.
“Researchers have previously observed that sestrin accumulates in muscle after exercise,” said Myungjin Kim, a research assistant professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. Kim works with Professor Jun Hee Lee. So the research team wanted to know more about the protein's apparent connection to exercise. Their first step was to encourage a few flies to train. With this, the team trained the flies for three weeks, comparing the running and flying abilities of normal flies with those of flies bred without the ability to make sestrin.
When they overexpressed sestrin in the muscles of normal flies, essentially maxing out their levels, they also found that these flies had abilities beyond trained flies, even without physical exertion. In fact, flies with overexpressed sestrin did not develop greater endurance during exercise. The positive effects of Sestrin include more than just improved endurance. Mice lacking sestrin lacked the enhanced aerobic capacity,improved breathing and fat burning, which are usually associated with physical activity.
New perspectives
“We propose that sestrin can coordinate these biological activities by turning different metabolic pathways on or off,” says Lee. “This type of combined effect is important to achieve the effect of training.”
Lee also helped another collaborator, Pura Muñoz-Cánoves of Pompeu Fabra University in Spain, demonstrate that muscle-specific sestrin can also help prevent atrophy in a muscle that is immobilized, such as the type that occurs in an extremity has been in a cast for a long time. “This independent study shows again that Sestrin alone is enough to provide many of the benefits of exercise,” says Lee.
Could Sestrin supplements be on the horizon? Not quite, says Lee. “Sestrins are not small molecules, but we are working on finding small molecule modulators for sestrin.”
Additionally, Kim adds that scientists still don't know how exercise produces sestrin in the body. “This is very important for future studies and could lead to a treatment for people who cannot exercise.”
You can find out more about the studyhereread.
