Discovery could help older adults maintain muscle strength

A recent discovery could potentially help older adults maintain their muscle strength, enabling them to remain active and independent. W. David Arnold, executive director of the NextGen Precision Health initiative at the University of Missouri, and his team have identified a problem with nerve-to-muscle communication that contributes to age-related muscle weakness, or sarcopenia, which affects nearly half of adults over 80.

Sarcopenia has traditionally been attributed to a decline in muscle mass and neuronal loss, but Arnold's research reveals that communication between nerves and muscles deteriorates with age. This is due to reduced levels of a protein called NaV1.4. The discovery of this protein failure presents an opportunity to restore some of the lost muscle function.

Arnold's team collaborated with Danish biotechnology company NMD Pharma to use their approach targeting a protein called ClC-1. Inhibiting ClC-1 partially made aging muscles more responsive to nerve signals and improved muscle strength in animal models. The study, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, offers hope for those who had assumed a decline in muscle strength was an inevitable part of aging.

Arnold's curiosity led him to become a researcher, and he is optimistic that ignaseclant, developed by NMD Pharma, could eventually help older adults with sarcopenia.