Exercise in a Pill
Fools Body, Has the Effect of Active Exercise
Run a mile sitting in your chair. The AMPK system is activated in
cells when they run short of energy, and it triggers the uptake
and metabolism of glucose and fats
Discoveries
made at the University of Dundee are helping in the development of
drugs that fool your body into thinking that you are actively
exercising even when you are not.
The drugs may help in the fight against the current increase in
the incidence of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Professor Grahame Hardie, Professor of Cellular Signalling in the
School of Life Sciences, discovered a system called AMP-activated
protein kinase (AMPK) in the 1980s.
AMPK is switched on by exercise, and triggers the "burning off" of
carbohydrate and fats by muscle, preventing them from being stored
in fat tissue. The system is thought to be responsible for the
beneficial effects of exercise in warding off obesity and type 2
diabetes, and drugs that activate AMPK would mimic this.
The drug metformin (derived from the medieval herbal remedy,
French lilac) is already widely used to treat type 2 diabetes,
although it was not previously understood how it worked. Now,
however, an explanation has been provided: it switches on the AMPK
system.
Professor Hardie is working with pharmaceutical companies to
develop a new generation of AMPK-activating drugs that may be more
effective than metformin.
Insulin is the hormone that stimulates tissues to take up glucose
from the blood. Type 1 diabetes (more common in children) is due
to a lack of insulin, whereas the type 2 form is due to the body
failing to respond properly to insulin.
The incidence of the type 2 form is rocketing across the world,
probably due to the modern urban lifestyle of high-calorie,
high-fat "junk" foods combined with lack of exercise. As many as 5
percent of the Scottish population may already have the disease,
but because of its long-term consequences, such as increased
susceptibility to heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney damage
and foot amputations, it is thought to account for over 10 percent
of all health service expenditures.
Although the type 2 form was previously only diagnosed in older
people, it has recently been found in young people who are
overweight.
Professor Hardie said: "We discovered that the AMPK system is
activated in cells when they run short of energy, and it triggers
the uptake and metabolism of glucose and fats. Clearly the best
policy is to eat sensibly and exercise regularly, which will
greatly reduce your chances of becoming overweight and developing
type 2 diabetes.
"However, when regular exercise is not possible, such as in older
people where other health problems may prevent it, drugs that
activate AMPK are an alternative. They may help to combat the
effects of a sedentary lifestyle." Source:
University of Dundee
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DID YOU KNOW?
Excess
weight and obesity kill roughly 300,000 Americans annually. The
economic costs of this burgeoning problem are equally staggering.
In 1995, the total (direct and indirect) cost attributed to
obesity was estimated at $99 billion, and by 2000 that figure had
increased to $117 billion
AND
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