Marathon Mouse

“So, it was at all obvious that changing one gene in muscle would lead to coordinated changes throughout the body, the nervous system to the cardiovascular system to the muscle itself. But the remarkable thing about this experiment is that this one change seems to rewire the entire system. “That's exciting to us because it says that this complicated system can coordinately changed by changing just one part. It also shows that it can be changed genetically, exercise itself. This means that activation of this pathway might be very helpful to patients are otherwise unable to exercise because of their weight or other complicating problems.” Drugs that activate the PPAR-delta pathway could enhance muscle strength, combat obesity, and protect diabetes, said Evans. “One reason this approach to combating obesity might be important is that most weight-loss drugs aim reducing appetite,” said Evans. “That's the hardest thing to change in people because appetite is genetically programmed. Drugs that enhance the PPAR-delta pathway would let people, like our mice, eat the same amount, but would increase their metabolism to burn more energy.” Evans noted that such drugs would also have the potential for abuse among athletes, who could take to enhance performance.
Further studies, said Evans, will try to understand the effects of PPAR-delta-enhancing drugs on the performance of normal animals. The researchers also plan to explore such treatments affect physiology and longevity in normal animals. And, they will explore the mechanism of action of the protein on the multitude of genes involved in the physiological changes they observed.