Muscle-Maintaining Drug Has Potential to Help Seniors Stay Spry

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston are developing an experimental drug to boost muscle size and strength in seniors, reports New Atlas . According to a study published in Biochemical Pharmacology , the team identified a protein, nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), in muscle stem cells that apparently governs their age-related dysfunction. The scientists synthesized a drug that minimizes the effect of the protein, allowing aged muscle stem cells to return to a more youthful state in which they still readily generate and regenerate muscle. Lab tests demonstrated old mice with a muscle injury had a higher number of functional muscle stem cells when administered the NNMT inhibitor (NNMTi) daily, compared to a second cohort that received a placebo after a week of treatment. Those mice also doubled their muscle fiber size, and exhibited 70 percent more muscle strength than the placebo group. Both groups' blood chemistry remained more or less unchanged, suggesting the NNMTi was not inducing any negative side effects. "There are no treatments currently available to delay, arrest, or reverse age-related muscle degeneration," remarks the University of Texas' Harshini Neelakantan. "These initial results support the development of an innovative drug treatment that has the potential to help seniors to become fitter, faster, and stronger, thus enabling them to live more active and independent lives as they age."