Sumedha Guha, Techno India University
To date we have known the best cure for muscle repair, damage and growth to be exercise. Rehabilitation work, physiotherapy and exercise has been a challenge for patients recovering from major operations or patients regaining voluntary control of their limbs after a long period of inaction.
Associate Professor Alfredo Franco-Obregon and his team of scientists at the National University of Singapore have come up with a breakthrough solution to this. They have discovered how an essential muscle protein TRPC1 works and responds to magnetic fields and with the help of targeted therapies they hope to come up with better solutions to activate TRPC1 such that TRPC1 can be reinstituted to damaged muscle tissues. By regulating the TRPC1 pathway with the help of magnetic fields, intensive care unit (ICU) patients may not have to wait till they can move to undergo rehabilitation and regain their muscle strength.
The researchers tested a magnetic-field generating device for patients. For a period of 10 weeks, patients were made to place their legs in the cylindrical magnetic field generating machine, twice every week. The researchers observed at least a 10% increase in their limb strength. The magnetic field that was used in the device to stimulate the muscle health were only 10 to 15 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field, much weaker than a common bar magnet strength.
It was only recently that Franco and the team could understand why such a significant improvement happened. Turns out TRCP1 when exposed to a magnetic field, starts taking up calcium ions which in turn activates a cascade of enzymes and molecules that cause muscles to produce energy and get stronger. Proving that magnetic fields activated the protein, the researchers developed tiny sacs called vesicles containing TRPC1 and inserted them into mutant muscle cells that had the proteins removed. The TRPC1 in the vesicles also responded to the magnetic fields and started taking up calcium.
The team of researchers from NUS are hopeful that targeted therapy can be administered to prevent the loss of muscle in ICU patients and elderly individuals. Drug development can take place. Drugs can be designed that activates TRPC1.
When muscles get activated in the body either through exercise or the protein, a series of metabolic activities are also triggered – from burning fat to increasing insulin sensitivity, which in turn reduces blood sugar levels. With that in mind, Prof Franco-Obregon is currently carrying out clinical trials with moderately diabetic patients to see if TRPC1-based therapy can reduce the patients’ reliance on drugs to manage their diabetes condition.
The protein TRPC1 does not respond to magnetic fields and mechanical forces like exercise if there are a certain class of antibiotics, called aminoglycosides in the body. Aminoglycosides are used to treat conditions like abdominal, urinary tract and bloodstream infections. So barring diabetic or post-surgery patients who are on these antibiotics, TRPC1 targeted therapy holds great promise for muscle strength restoration and rejuvenation.
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