A few years ago he cradled in Spain a derogatory term of sports inspiration: the ‘armchair‘. It basically represented all those sports lovers who really were fans of sports broadcasts and prisoners of their sofas. Thousands of athletes moved through his eyes and that was the closest to the physical activity they were going to be. Perhaps those are in luck because the researchers of the University of Michigan They have discovered that a protein, sestrin, can offer similar benefits to the body.
The scientists find, published in the journal Nature, focuses on a family of exercise-inducible proteins called sestrin discovered in 2010 by scientists of the San Diego University. It is a natural inhibitor of aging and age-related pathologies that acts as a controller between aging and metabolism.
Michigan researchers have found that human evolution has provided these components with the mediation of the benefits of exercise. That is Without sestrin there will be no muscular bodies, fondistas or superatletas because it is the factor that triggers the metabolic benefits of exercise and the improvement of resistance. Conversely, the handling of this protein could mimic the effects of exercise and, according to scientists, this “suggests that it could be an important effect of exercise metabolism.”
Exercise without effects on the body
Experiments with flies and mice showed that “with overexpression” of the protein the body mimicked many of the effects of physical training. In fact, the insects improved in their race and performance records on a simulated treadmill in the laboratory with test tubes. Even flies that had not trained had improved their performance. In contrast, subjects who developed their physical training in the laboratory with sestrin deficiency “did not improve their metabolism or increase endurance even after physical training.” Mice to whom sestrine was removed who had executed physical activity routines they had not improved their aerobic capacity or breathing or burned fat. The exercise was useless because the metabolism did not record their tasks.
With the evidence of the study, at the University of Michigan they are very optimistic: “We demonstrate that the role of sestrin in mediating exercise, increasing physical endurance and improving metabolism It is highly preserved throughout the animal kingdom. Therefore, it can serve as a promising therapeutic molecule for benefits similar to exercise, such as improve mobility and metabolism“.
Sestrin study in Spain
One of the possible applications has come from Pompeu Fabra University with Dr. Pura Muñoz-Cánoves as team leader. Their investigations have allowed to glimpse that the atrophy of an immobilized muscle can be prevented.
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Now, lovers of ‘armchair’ just have to wait for sestrin treatments so that without leaving home they can wear bodies like those of their admired idols. It seems science fiction but in the laboratory they open a door to the hope of future supplements. “They are not small molecules, but we are working to find modulators of small sestrin molecules,” advanced Dr. Jun Hee Lee, one of the members of the department of Molecular and Integral Physiology of the University of Michigan That was part of the study.
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