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Researchers to target receptors for possible exercise pill
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Researchers at St. Louis University, in St. Louis, Missouri, have received grants to develop a pill that mimics the metabolic effects of exercise, according to a press release from the university.
Thomas Burris, PhD, chair of pharmacology and physiology, and colleagues have received grants from the U.S. Department of Defense and the NIH to study two receptors, REV-ERB and ERR, which in previous study have been suggested as good targets for exercise-mimetic drugs.
“If you exercise, it’s effectively a treatment for diabetes and obesity as you increase the metabolic rate of muscle,” Burris said in the release. “Our drug compounds are doing similar things. They make muscles look like they’re exercising, turning on the genes that get activated during exercise, even if no exercise is happening.”
In a previous study an agonist for REV-ERB was shown to reduce weight and improve metabolic function in animals, according to the release. In the new study, Burris and colleagues will reformulate the drug and examine ERR to create a drug that could mimic some benefits of exercise as a treatment for diabetes and obesity.