What a future: Pill could one day mimic exercise

(CN) — Sometime in the future you might be able to pop a pill that mimics the positive effects of exercise, without ever having to break a sweat. 

Physical exercise enhances the growth and metabolism of muscle cells. Those metabolic changes are associated with the activation of proteins called estranged-related receptors. 

Over almost a decade of work, Bahaa Elgendy, a professor of anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and the project’s principal investigator, and his colleagues developed a compound that can activate those proteins in experiments with mice. They will present their findings at the American Chemical Society’s spring 2024 meeting in New Orleans on Monday,

“So many people like myself are lazy and don’t like exercise or they’re busy all the time,” Elgendy said in a pre-recorded video put out by the American Chemical Society. “I’m not promoting replacing exercise or anything, not at least for people who are lazy like myself, but we can benefit from these drugs.” 

Elgendy hopes that the effects of the drug could also be beneficial for older people, people with cancer and neurodegenerative disease, and even kids with muscular dystrophy, and others who can’t participate in physical activity.

“We cannot replace exercise; exercise is important on all levels,” Elgendy said in a statement accompanying the study. “If I can exercise, I should go ahead and get the physical activity. But there are so many cases in which a substitute is needed.”

Elgendy and his team’s research with animals suggests their compound’s targeting of ERRs could be beneficial for people dealing with obesity, heart failure, or decline in kidney function as they age. 

“In all of these conditions, ERRs play a major role,” Elgendy said. “If you have a compound that can activate them effectively, you could generate so many beneficial effects.”

Elgendy and his colleagues want to continue to test their new compounds in animals through a startup company they founded, and the possibility of developing their compounds as treatments for people with neurodegenerative disorders.

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