Sydney, Australia – A new study performed by researchers from the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre, discovered more than 1,000 molecular changes in individuals’ experiment while exercising. According to their findings, it is possible to develop an exercise pill that will potentially provide the benefits of working out. The research was published in Cell Metabolism.
“Exercise is the most powerful therapy for many human diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders,” David James, lead author of the study said in a statement. “However, for many people, exercise isn’t a viable treatment option. This means it is essential we find ways of developing drugs that mimic the benefits of exercise.”
The study
In order to determine molecular changes in people, the Australian researchers evaluated several human skeletal muscle biopsies from four different males that were untrained but healthy, they analyzed them by following a 10 minutes of high intensity exercise. The researchers used a particular technique that let them analyze a process named “protein phosphorylation.”
Dr. Benjamin Parkir found that short, intensive exercise, develops more than 1000 molecular changes in the human body. Most of the changes they discovered have not been previously linked with the act of exercising. Additionally, the team worked in collaboration with researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
“Exercise produces an extremely complex, cascading set of responses within the human muscle. It plays an essential role in controlling energy metabolism and insulin sensitivity,” said co-author Dr. Nolan Hoffman, as University of Sydney reported.
This is the first research that determines exactly what happens with the human muscles while exercising. In the past, scientists have suspected that exercise causes a complicated series of changes in the muscles, but they have not been able to identify which were those changes.
Further actions
The new data provided will help scientists develop a drug that will hopefully enhance the true beneficial changes caused by exercise. The exercise pill will have to take into account multiple actions.
“Most traditional drugs target individual molecules. With this exercise blueprint, we have proven that any drug that mimics exercises will need to target multiple molecules and possibly even pathways, which are a combination of molecules working together,” Professor James stated. “We believe this is the key to unlocking the riddle of drug treatments to mimic exercise. Our data clearly show the complexity of the response: it is not one thing, but rather, the drug will have to target multiple things. Our research has provided the roadmap to figure this out,” he added.
Source: University of Sydney