An apple a day…makes muscles bigger?!
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Invalid Link RemovedThe title of this post is not much of an exaggeration on research published this past June. Scientists at the University of Iowa set out to find potential therapies to treat muscle atrophy, which is simply defined as a decrease in muscle mass. Muscle atrophy can occur for a whole host of reasons: fasting, aging, and simply being inactive among them. There are many diseases, like cancer, for which muscle wasting just comes with the territory. Until this study, there was no known drug to treat this common problem — an unfortunate situation because so many people suffering from muscle atrophy can’t do the exercise needed to grow their muscles. This new potential treatment is found in apple peels, and not only does it stop atrophy, it makes muscles bigger and stronger. Oh, and did I mention that it shrinks fat and lowers cholesterol and blood sugar, too?
Yeah, you should check this out:
The authors started off by looking at the genes expressed in muscle biopsies from muscles undergoing atrophy, and they made note of which genes had high or low expression. Then, they screened 1300+ compounds for any that could (basically) decrease the high genes and increase the low genes, the idea being that any compound that could reverse the gene expression in muscle atrophy might be a good treatment. And they were right.
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Invalid Link RemovedUrsolic acid
The screen identified ursolic acid, a compound found in large quantities in apple peels, as the only potential inhibitor of muscle atrophy. So the researchers injected ursolic acid into mice with atrophic muscles, which stopped muscle loss and increased muscle weight by 7%. Seven percent might not sound like a lot, but it is, considering that, again, this is the first compound shown to stop muscle loss at all. A 7% increase in muscle weight in a 180 lb man with Invalid Link Removed muscle mass would mean a gain of over 5 pounds of muscle.
Invalid Link RemovedUrsolic acid diet shrinks fat cells
Things got even more interesting when normal mice were put on a diet with 0.27% ursolic acid: muscles got bigger andsignificantly stronger, blood levels of fat and cholesterol decreased, and fat cells shrank considerably, thus reducing fat weight significantly (see for yourself in a figure from the article, left). This is all in addition to the lowered blood sugar in fasting mice who received ursolic acid injections. To make things even better, the authors were able to identify genes that were increased or decreased by treatment, and that were probably responsible for these effects.
In my opinion, these scientists stumbled across something even greater than what they hoped to find. Their data on ursolic acid suggests its usefulness in treating everything from muscle atrophy to obesity to Invalid Link Removed to type 2 diabetes. Not even mentioned in this paper is the work that has previously shown the ability of ursolic acid to Invalid Link Removed Invalid Link Removed cells and Invalid Link Removedproteins.
Okay, I’m impressed. What doesn’t ursolic acid do? Seems like it could be a future wonder drug! I’m very interested to see what scientists will try with this compound next…
Have a nerdy weekend! Invalid Link Removed
Kunkel SD, Suneja M, Ebert SM, Bongers KS, Fox DK, Malmberg SE, Alipour F, Shields RK, & Adams CM (2011). mRNA expression signatures of human skeletal muscle atrophy identify a natural compound that increases muscle mass. Cell metabolism, 13 (6), 627-38 PMID: Invalid Link Removed
Shishodia S, Majumdar S, Banerjee S, & Aggarwal BB (2003). Ursolic acid inhibits nuclear factor-kappaB activation induced by carcinogenic agents through suppression of IkappaBalpha kinase and p65 phosphorylation: correlation with down-regulation of cyclooxygenase 2, matrix metalloproteinase 9, and cyclin D1. Cancer research, 63 (15), 4375-83 PMID: Invalid Link Removed
Pathak AK, Bhutani M, Nair AS, Ahn KS, Chakraborty A, Kadara H, Guha S, Sethi G, & Aggarwal BB (2007). Ursolic acid inhibits STAT3 activation pathway leading to suppression of proliferation and chemosensitization of human multiple myeloma cells.Molecular cancer research : MCR, 5 (9), 943-55 PMID: Invalid Link Removed
Wilkinson K, Boyd JD, Glicksman M, Moore KJ, & El Khoury J (2011). A high-content drug screen identifies ursolic acid as an inhibitor of amyloid-{beta} interactions with its receptor CD36. The Journal of biological chemistry PMID: Invalid Link Removed