A recent Northwestern Medicine study found that obese mice fed a high-fat diet and given prednisone once a week improved their exercise endurance, became stronger, increased their lean body mass, and lost weight. Muscle metabolism was also higher in the mice.
Prednisone, given once a week, increased nutrition absorption in the muscles.
These mice also exhibited higher amounts of adiponectin. a fat-derived hormone that appears to protect against diabetes and insulin resistance, according to the researchers.
The researchers also discovered that mice who were already obese due to a high-fat diet benefited from once-weekly prednisone treatment, with enhanced strength, running capacity, and decreased blood glucose levels.
These experiments were carried out on mice. If these similar mechanisms exist in people, then once-weekly visits are possible.
Dr. Elizabeth McNally, director of Northwestern University. School of Medicine's Center for Genetic Medicine.
McNally is also the Elizabeth J. Ward Professor of Genetic Medicine at Northwestern Medicine.
"Daily prednisone has been linked to obesity and even metabolic syndrome, a condition characterized by high blood lipids, blood sugar, and weight gain," McNally added. "These results, in which the mice are intermittently 'pulsed' with once-weekly prednisone. are significantly different. Obesity is a serious issue, and the thought that once-weekly prednisone could enhance nutrition uptake into muscle could be a treatment option."
Is it still possible for patients with immunological problems to benefit from a weekly dose?
For various immunological diseases, many individuals take prednisone on a daily basis. Weight gain and even muscle atrophy with weakness are known side effects of daily prednisone. Researchers want to see if patients may obtain the same immunological response from intermittent prednisone administration, which could be considerably better for the muscles.
Muscular dystrophy was the starting point for research.
McNally's team earlier discovered that providing prednisone intermittently was beneficial for muscular dystrophy, with once-weekly prednisone improving strength.
The scientists also recently published results from a pilot study in which one weekly dose of prednisone enhanced lean mass in adults with muscular dystrophy.
Prednisone dose is not one-size-fits-all.
Dosing of prednisone has varied effects on different people.
McNally wants to know what the situation is.
"We can really personalise prednisone dosing if we can figure out how to get the optimal dose of prednisone that minimises atrophy factors while maximising favourable markers like adiponectin," she said.
Based on a new study just published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation by Isabella Salamone, a graduate student in McNally's lab, the group recently demonstrated that weekly prednisone uses significantly distinct biochemical pathways to strengthen the muscle in male versus female mice.
The time-of-day link
Another new study from Northwestern University and the University of Cincinnati published last month in Science Advances links the advantages of weekly prednisone to circadian rhythms.
Do slimmer, stronger mice translate to leaner, stronger humans?
The biggest issue, according to McNally, is that these research were done on mice.
"While the pilot trial in humans with muscular dystrophy was encouraging," McNally said, "mouse muscles have more fast-twitch fibres than humans, and slow-twitch muscle may be different." "More research is needed to see if the same mechanisms operate in human muscles," says the researcher.
You must be logged in to post a comment.