‘For People Who Are Lazy Like Myself’—Pill for Exercise a Step Closer

We might be inching closer to a pill that can replace going to the gym, researchers say.

New chemical compounds have been discovered that appear capable of mimicking the health benefits of a workout, according to new research being presented at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) between March 17-21.

A pill containing these chemicals could imitate the effect of exercise on the metabolism and growth of muscle cells, the researchers say, and therefore offset potential muscle atrophy and weakness in people who cannot exercise for medical reasons, or have a disease that causes muscle wasting.

“We all know that exercise is super-beneficial for the body and mind, but not everyone can exercise,” study author Bahaa Elgendy, a professor of anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said in a video presentation for the ACS. “Many people cannot exercise and that’s why having an exercise in a pill could be super-beneficial to mimic or enhance the effects of exercise for people who are aging, for people with certain diseases or who are facing some muscle loss using some other drugs.”

Exercise triggers metabolic changes in the muscles by activating specialized proteins called estrogen-related receptors (ERRs), which come in three types: ERRα, ERRβ and ERRγ. The compound developed by Elgendy and his team, which they propose using in a pill, is named SLU-PP-332, and is capable of activating all three types of ERR, thus mimicking the effects of exercise on these proteins.

ERRα was the most important protein to activate, as it regulates exercise-induced stress adaptation in muscles, as well as other important physiological processes.

In experiments on mice, the researcher found that giving the rodents SLU-PP-332 led to an increase in fatigue-resistant muscle fibers, and improved the animals’ endurance when exercising.

With further research, the scientists developed new compounds that worked even better than SLU-PP-332, and optimized them for stability and low potential for toxicity.

“These drug targets are undruggable and if we are successful to drug them, this could lead to development of therapeutics for some of the most challenging diseases we are facing nowadays, like neurodegenerative diseases and heart failure,” Elgendy said in the video. “So many people like myself are lazy and don’t like exercise or they’re busy all the time, so if we can solve this with a pill…

“Again, I’m not promoting replacing exercise or anything, but at least for people who are lazy like myself, they can benefit from these drugs. It has always been heartbreaking for me to see especially kids who cannot move and who cannot move properly and who suffer from Duchenne muscle dystrophy and all of these diseases, horrible diseases, and you see the kids and you see their families and it’s heartbreaking. I’m not 100 percent sure that this could be a cure for these diseases, but this could at least help some people, some kids, some adults to improve the quality of life.”

SLU-PP-332 and the other compounds are also thought to have the potential to be used to fight conditions like declining kidney function, heart failure, obesity, or even neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.

“In all of these conditions, ERRs play a major role,” Elgendy said in a statement. “If you have a compound that can activate them effectively, you could generate so many beneficial effects.”

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