Lacking a single protein speeds up mice muscular aging
One alteration that affects old peopleʼs quality of life is muscular aging, provoking loss of strength, known as sarcopenia. Aged 55, people start losing muscle mass, and when older, the loss is critical. Nowadays treatments for sarcopenia and reasons of its appearance are still unknown. A study by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), with the collaboration of the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Biomedicine Research Centre in Diabetes and Metabolic Associated Diseases (CIBERDEM), has discovered that the protein Mitofusin 2 is necessary in mice to have healthy muscles. The scientific article, published today in The EMBO Journal, shows that this protein could be a therapeutic target to improve sarcopenia in old people.
One alteration that affects old peopleʼs quality of life is muscular aging, provoking loss of strength, known as sarcopenia. Aged 55, people start losing muscle mass, and when older, the loss is critical. Nowadays treatments for sarcopenia and reasons of its appearance are still unknown. A study by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), with the collaboration of the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Biomedicine Research Centre in Diabetes and Metabolic Associated Diseases (CIBERDEM), has discovered that the protein Mitofusin 2 is necessary in mice to have healthy muscles. The scientific article, published today in The EMBO Journal, shows that this protein could be a therapeutic target to improve sarcopenia in old people.
The scientists led by Antonio Zorzano, Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine (Biology) of the University of Barcelona, and coordinator of the Molecular Medicine program of IRB Barcelona, saw that mice, when aging, lose expression of Mitofusin 2 in their muscles.
“Sarcopenia is not a minor problem because it prevents old people from doing daily chores”, said the UB Professor Antonio Zorzano, Head of the Complex Metabolic Diseases and Mitochondria Lab of IRB Barcelona and ICREA 2013 Academia Award. “If we want to increase old peopleʼs health this is a problem we have to take care of” he said. The scientific team shows that the low activity of this protein in 24-month mice (equal to an 80-year-old person) is directly related to muscle aging and sarcopenia.
The scientists confirm the association between the loss of Mitofusin 2 and muscle aging when they remove the protein from 6-month mice muscles (equal to a 30-year-old person) because they speed aging up and produce the condition of old mice. According to the United Nations, about 2.100 million people will be aged over 60 in 2050 (22% of the global population). Now, people over 60 are a 12% of the global population.
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