Khaberni - A recent medical study has revealed an easy way to help maintain muscle health as we age.
The researchers found that regular exercise helps reset the signaling pathways in muscle tissues, thus combating age-related weakness, and that the regulatory compound mTORC1, which is responsible for the growth and renewal of proteins, becomes overly active in the muscles of older adults, leading to the accumulation of damaged molecules and accelerating the progression of muscle wasting disease. The transcription factor DEAF1 plays a central role in this process: when it is overly active, it amplifies mTORC1 signals and disrupts the normal process of muscle cell renewal.
Research has shown that physical exercise reduces the activity of DEAF1 by activating protective proteins from the FOXO family, and as a result, mTORC1 function returns to a more youthful state and cells once again more effectively dispose of defective proteins. When scientists inhibited the FOXO gene or artificially increased levels of the DEAF1 gene, the benefits of physical exercise nearly vanished.
Experiments on model organisms have confirmed the generality of this mechanism: reducing the activity of the DEAF1 gene alone improved the molecular condition and strength of muscles with age.
Researchers believe that the identified FOXO–DEAF1–mTORC1 pathway could form the basis for developing new methods to maintain muscle health in aging, including pharmacological methods to mimic some of the benefits of physical exercise.
