New Research May Help Older Adults Stay Physically Capable for Longer

Research from the University of Birmingham in the FASEB Journal has identified a key mechanism that drives the purging of damaged mitochondria, which could lead to new drug therapies to help older adults maintain their skeletal muscle mass and physical function for longer, reports EurekAlert . A tool that uses fluorescent tags to study mitochondria in muscle cells was used to determine that activating a master energy sensor molecule, called AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), helps stimulate mitochondrial breakdown. This implies that other established AMPK activators, such as exercise, may stimulate the clearance of damaged mitochondria, thus keeping mitochondria in muscle healthy and extending older people's physical capabilities. "Many studies . . . demonstrate that AMPK activation in muscle elicits many beneficial effects for treating type 2 diabetes," said Birmingham's Yu-Chiang Lai. "As a consequence, many pharmaceutical companies are currently working to develop pre-clinical compounds that activate AMPK. We hope that our new discovery will accelerate targeted drug development to help identify new and safe compounds to activate this key molecule in muscle."