How a medicine helps old muscles stay strong
The neuromuscular junction is a focal point of mTORC1 signaling in sarcopenia
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
As mice get old, their muscles weaken. A drug called rapamycin helps keep their muscles strong by calming down a noisy signal in the muscle. This signal, called mTORC1, causes damage at the connection between nerves and muscles. Turning it down helps, but only in some muscles.
Surprising Findings
Turning on mTORC1, a growth signal, causes aging-like muscle damage—even though it’s supposed to build muscle.
mTORC1 is known for promoting muscle growth, so sustained activation was expected to help, not harm. Instead, it caused NMJ instability, axon thinning, and sarcopenia-like features.
Practical Takeaways
Support nerve-muscle health through resistance training and balanced protein intake to maintain NMJ integrity.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
As mice get old, their muscles weaken. A drug called rapamycin helps keep their muscles strong by calming down a noisy signal in the muscle. This signal, called mTORC1, causes damage at the connection between nerves and muscles. Turning it down helps, but only in some muscles.
Surprising Findings
Turning on mTORC1, a growth signal, causes aging-like muscle damage—even though it’s supposed to build muscle.
mTORC1 is known for promoting muscle growth, so sustained activation was expected to help, not harm. Instead, it caused NMJ instability, axon thinning, and sarcopenia-like features.
Practical Takeaways
Support nerve-muscle health through resistance training and balanced protein intake to maintain NMJ integrity.
Publication
Journal
Nature Communications
Year
2020
Authors
D. J. Ham, Anastasiya Börsch, Shuo Lin, Marco Thürkauf, M. Weihrauch, J. Reinhard, Julien Delezie, Fabienne Battilana, Xueyong Wang, Marco S. Kaiser, M. Guridi, M. Sinnreich, M. Rich, Nitish Mittal, L. Tintignac, Christoph Handschin, M. Zavolan, M. Rüegg
Related Content
Claims (6)
Giving older mice a drug called rapamycin helps keep their muscles strong and working well as they age, especially in some muscles but not others.
Turning on a certain signal in mouse muscles makes them age faster, causing nerve and muscle problems like those seen in old age — but this can be reversed with a drug called rapamycin.
As mice get older, the places where nerves connect to muscles show big changes in genes tied to inflammation and tissue breakdown — especially in a key area called the neuromuscular junction — which might weaken the connection and affect muscle function.
As mice get older, a key cellular switch called mTORC1 in their muscles turns down genes that keep muscle structure strong, turns up genes linked to inflammation, and flips on signals seen when nerves stop talking to muscles. Giving them a drug called rapamycin helps reverse some of these changes, suggesting this switch plays a big role in how muscles age.
Rapamycin helps 'rejuvenate' some muscles in old mice but not others—turns out, it depends on the muscle and how connected it is to nerves. In muscles that are more affected by aging, the drug might actually make nerve-related problems worse.