Researchers have managed to develop a treatment that makes the muscles believe that they are exercising, promoting weight loss.
- Researchers at the University of San Francisco have developed a drug that tricks muscles into thinking they are exercising.
- This treatment induces weight loss and improved endurance.
- In addition to fighting endurance, this drug could help curb age-related muscle loss.
If you don’t like exercising, the University of San Francisco has developed a pill that might appeal to you. The pill manages to make your muscles believe that they are exercising, and thus induces weight loss. The research team’s work was published in the journal Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental TherapeuticsSeptember 22, 2023.
SLU-PP-332 : this treatment makes the muscles believe they are moving
This new compound, called SLU-PP-332was developed and tested by Thomas Burrisprofessor of pharmacy at the University of Florida. This medication stimulates a metabolic pathway that typically responds to exercise. Specifically, it targets a group of proteins in the body (known as ERR)which are involved in the functioning of energy-intensive tissues such as muscles, heart and brain.
Tests carried out with obese mice treated with SLU-PP-332show that the animals lost weight, without any significant physical effort. After taking two doses per day for a month, they had 10 times less fat than untreated rodents. They also lost 12% of their body weight, while eating the same amounts of food.
Additionally, the mice displayed greater endurance, managing to run almost 50% further than before.
“This compound basically tells skeletal muscle to make the same changes you see during endurance training”explains Pr Thomas Burris in a communicated. “When you treat mice with the drug, you can see that their whole body’s metabolism shifts to using fatty acids, which is very similar to what people use when they fast or exercise.”added the expert. “And the animals start to lose weight.”
Diabetes and age-related muscle loss: the treatment would not be just a “pill slimming“
The new compound is in the early stages of development. However, the team assures that it could one day be tested in people to treat diseases such as obesity or diabetes.
For the main author, “most great hope “For the new drug could be to maintain muscle mass during weight loss – which often threatens lean muscle mass – or during aging, when the body naturally responds less strongly to exercise.”. Still, he acknowledges that more research will be needed to understand the treatment’s full potential.
