cAMP Upregulation is Involved in the Benefits of Exercise and Calorie Restriction

Both exercise and the practice of calorie restriction produce benefits to health in large part via an increased or more efficient operation of cellular maintenance processes such as autophagy and the ubiquitin-proteasome system, both of which act to recycle damaged or waste proteins and cell structures, improving cell function. Many research groups are involved in investigating the details of these metabolic responses, in search of ways to mimic some fraction of the beneficial effects of exercise or calorie restriction. The work noted here is an example of the type, focused on increased levels of cAMP as an important part of the process. It is already well known that exercise has many salutary effects, but= new findings hint at the possibility that exercise and fasting could also help reduce the risk of developing conditions associated with the accumulation of misfolded proteins, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. That possibility, however, remains to be explored. In their experiments, the researchers analyzed the effects of exercise on cells obtained from the thigh muscles of four human volunteers before and after vigorous biking. Following exercise, the proteasomes of these cells showed dramatically more molecular marks of enhanced protein degradation, including greater levels of cAMP. The same changes were observed in the muscles of anesthetized rats whose hind legs were stimulated to contract repeatedly. Fasting - even for brief periods - produced a similar eff...
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