HomeLifestyleHealth & FitnessNew Research Finds An Enzyme That Mimics The Effects Of Exercise

New Research Finds An Enzyme That Mimics The Effects Of Exercise

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A team of scientists from Baylor College of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine and partner institutions report today in the journal Nature that they have found a molecule in the blood that is generated during exercise and can successfully lower food intake and obesity in mice.

The findings add to our knowledge of the physiological pathways that underpin the exercise-hunger interaction.

Regular exercise has been found to help weight loss, manage appetite, and enhance the metabolic profile, especially for patients who are overweight and obese. 

“If we can understand the mechanism by which exercise triggers these benefits,” according to co-corresponding author Dr. Yong Xu, “then we are closer to helping many people improve their health.”

“We wanted to understand how exercise works at the molecular level to be able to capture some of its benefits,” added co-corresponding author Jonathan Long.

“For example, older or frail people who cannot exercise enough, may one day benefit from taking a medication that can help slow down osteoporosis, heart disease or other conditions.”

After mice ran hard on a treadmill for a long time, Xu, Long, and their colleagues looked at every compound in their blood plasma. The molecule that changed the most was an amino acid called Lac-Phe that had been changed. It is made from lactate and phenylalanine. Lactate is a byproduct of hard exercise that makes muscles feel like they are on fire (an amino acid that is one of the building blocks of proteins).

Over a 12-hour period, a high dose of Lac-Phe reduced food intake in diet-induced obese mice (fed a high-fat diet) by nearly 50 percent compared to control mice.

This was accomplished without changing the mice’s activity level or energy expenditure. When given to mice for 10 days, Lac-Phe decreased the total amount of food they ate and their body weight (because they lost fat) and made them better able to handle glucose.

The researchers also discovered an enzyme called CNDP2, which is involved in the creation of Lac-Phe, and demonstrated that mice lacking this enzyme did not shed as much weight on an exercise program as a control group.

Surprisingly, the researchers discovered significant increases in plasma Lac-Phe levels in racehorses and people following physical activity.

Sprint activity caused the greatest increase in plasma Lac-Phe, followed by resistance training, and finally endurance training, according to data from a human exercise cohort.

“This suggests that Lac-Phe is an ancient and conserved system that regulates feeding and is associated with physical activity in many animal species,” Long added.

“Our next steps include finding more details about how Lac-Phe mediates its effects in the body, including the brain,” Xu added. “Our goal is to learn to modulate this exercise pathway for therapeutic interventions,” says the researcher.

Image Credit: Getty

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