Scientists at ANU developing ‘exercise’ in a pill
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Researchers at Australian National University are developing a pill that aims to deliver the health benefits of working out.
The team have observed that distinct molecular messages travel to our brains and our eyes immediately after an exercise session. They believe it may be possible to ‘hijack’ these molecules and bundle them into a vitamin-like supplement.
However, the pill won’t be medicine for lazy couch potatoes looking to lose weight. It is not even intended for general public consumption.
The vitamin is designed to help immobile patients unable to exercise at the intensity needed to reap the rewards, as well as people suffering from neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Dr Joshua Chu-Tan (left) and Professor Riccardo Natoli (right) from the ANU Clear Vision Research Lab. Photo retrieved from Canberra Weekly.
Associate Professor Riccardo Natoli, Head of Clear Vision Research at ANU, said the molecular messages could be hijacked, recoded, and then “bottled up” in a pill so it can easily be taken as a vitamin supplement.
“The beneficial messages being sent to the central nervous system during exercise are packaged up in what is known as lipid particles,” he said.
“We are essentially prescribing the molecular message of exercise to those who physically aren’t able to.”
Dr Joshua Chu-Tan, also from the ANU Clear Vision Research Lab, added: “It’s been suggested that prescribing exercise to patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s can help improve and slow down the disease progression.”
“We know that from looking at diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, if you exercise in a particular fashion, you can potentially stimulate neuronal activity,” he continued.
“That hasn’t really been looked at in the retina at the level we’re thinking of. We want to understand the molecular messages that underpin the benefits of exercise.”
“We can’t possibly package all the effects of exercise into a single pill; there are too many benefits that stretch throughout the entire body beyond what we could ‘prescribe’, and that’s not the goal,” said Dr Chu-Tan.
What is the science behind the ‘exercise’ pill?
The ANU team observed that molecular messages were being sent to the central nervous system and, potentially, the optic nerves immediately after we exercise.
They want to understand further what effect these molecular messages have on retinal health, the central nervous system, and eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Professor Natoli explained that our bodies gradually lose their ability to communicate between the muscles and the retina as we age. But genetic or molecular supplementation (regularly taking supplements) could slow down or prevent that natural biological process.
“Our goal is to figure out what these molecules are communicating to the body and how they’re communicating.”
The ANU researchers are also working to determine how much impact working out has on the light-sensing part of the eye – and whether exercise can help maintain good eyesight as we age.
“We found the benefits of exercise extend far beyond what has traditionally been known; however, this has been largely understudied in the retina, despite the retina being an extension of the brain,” said Dr Chu-Tan, suggesting that further research was needed to understand how these molecular signals work.
Dr Chu-Tan, Tuckwell Scholar Max Kirkby, and Associate Professor Natoli’s reviews of related literature for the study is published in Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.
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