Preventing old age diseases: Consuming energy rather than dieting

By making mice 'skeletal muscles use less energy efficiently, researchers say they have delayed the death of mice and the symptoms associated with old age diseases, including mobility. coronary artery disease, obesity, and a type of cancer. According to the researchers, the health benefits of the rapidly increasing metabolic rate appear to be present without any direct effect on the aging process.

Metabolic researchers at Washington University at St. Louis found that although energy consumption does not extend life in mice, activating a protein in muscle tissue increases average life expectancy and prevents age-related diseases. Researchers believe that one day a similar study may help people prevent age-related symptoms such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, high blood pressure and even some cancers.

Clay Semenkovich of Wishington University said: 'When you make mitochondrial activity poorly, muscles burn more calories, increasing metabolism at least partially replacing movement. ' . He continued: 'There are two ways to treat obesity and related diseases. You can eat less, but this is not good, or you can eat what you like like these mice and offer a changed physiology. It is a fundamentally different method of clarifying the problem '.

Researchers explain atherosclerosis, diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer that occur more often as the age increases. Old age-related diseases are different from the aging process - this physiological decline includes a decrease in muscle strength, cardiopulmonary function, vision and hearing as well as wrinkled skin and silver hair. Therefore, aging and age-related diseases are related but may not share the same mechanisms.

(Photo: iStockphoto / Andrei Tchernov) Researchers believe that with making difficulties make strategies to increase life expectancy in people and the separation between aging and age-related diseases aging, recognizing a simple intervention that affects old age diseases is an interesting approach to reduce the disease caused by older age. They argue that the treatments invented to change the effectiveness of mitochondrial respiration may be the way to achieve this.

In a series of experiments, the team of researchers raised a large number of mice, fed them common foods and tracked each mouse until they died. Half of the mice were genetically engineered to produce more protein in their muscle tissue, uncoupling protein-1 protein. In muscle tissue, paired protein 1 converts energy from food into heat, not accumulating into fat.

An earlier study conducted by Clay Semenkovich found that mice with extra protein separated from muscle tissue were able to fight diabetes and obesity .

Because the experiments took too much time and involved feeding and tracking too many mice, Semenkovich collaborated with other researchers, Alison C. Gates, Carlos Bernal-Mazrachi and Sharon L. Chinault.

Semenkovich said: 'Basic separation means creating poor metabolism. A few years ago we discovered that when mice produced a paired protein in their muscles, they did not suffer from obesity. The next challenge is to consider whether protein is involved in a number of important human issues, such as aging and age-related illness. '

The longest-lived mice in each group survived 39 months and died in two weeks. The difference is in the average lifespan of the mouse. The average survival in rats was 30 months compared to 27 months in their untreated calving mice.

Semenkovich said: 'We are a bit disappointed because we hope that muscle separation will slow the aging process, but the maximum life expectancy has not increased. However, the maximum life expectancy can be improved in rats that split apart. '

Semenkovich said mice with genetic changes tend to live longer, probably because they can prevent age-related diseases. Another result is that: Reducing the amount of fat in the rat body by accelerating metabolism with paired proteins will delay death and diseases such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, high blood pressure and even cancer.

Researchers examined each mouse after they died. They were surprised to find that female mice with a mutated protein mutation are less likely to develop a type of cancer called lymphoma. No female mice are genetically engineered to do this. There were no differences in the percentage of lymphoma blood cells found in male mice. Increased paired proteins in muscle also reduce the score of chronic inflammation.

In the second series of experiments, the researchers found that paired rats were less likely to develop coronary artery disease. This is in contrast to what Semenkovich and his colleagues have found in mice that are designed to produce excess 1-pair protein in the wall of the aorta - the body's main artery. The mice in this previous study aimed at high blood pressure and atherosclerosis rather than being protected against damage.

'Where the separation occurs has a huge effect,' he said. 'If one day the principle becomes a cure, it is very important to target specific tissues to produce the desired effect.'

The team also created a strain of mice that produced extra protein to separate the pair after mice received the drug therapy. They genetically engineered a strain of mice that turned into obesity.When the researchers injected antibiotic drugs called doxycycline into mice, they produced more proteins that separate the muscles in the muscle and reversed their diseases with glucose-related exchange and hypertension. Obesity .

Prior to these experiments, the researchers hypothesized that paired mice could experience the type of fast-growing existence commonly found in animals with a calorie restriction. Semenkovich said: ' At the University of Washington, we have Dr. John Holloszy - one of the world's leading scientists in aging research. The longevity calorie limit of mice and Dr. Holloszy have begun to shift calorie limits to humans. '

In studies in the 1980s, Holloszy's research team also demonstrated that more active rodents tend to live longer, but unlike calorie-restricted rodents, age. Their maximum life remains unchanged. Semenkovich said the mouse separated the pair like other motivated animals.

'Muscle separation can replace exercise or exercise,' he said. 'If this is also true in people, and if separation is done safely, then this could be an important cure because sometimes it's difficult to ask a person to exercise.'

The study was funded by the National Medical Association and the Clinical Nutrition Research Unit, the Diabetes Training and Research Center, The Center for Digestive Diseases at Wasington University.

THANH TAM