New study ‘creates possibility for drugs that mimic effects of exercise’

Drug treatments that mirror the health benefits of exercise could be created in future following a study of 1,000 molecular reactions to physical activity.

New research from the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre has identified a wide range of molecular changes that occur in the muscles during exercise, adding up to a comprehensive exercise blueprint.

This was achieved by using mass spectrometry to conduct human skeletal muscle biopsies from four untrained, healthy males following ten-minutes of high intensity exercise. The majority of changes discovered had not previously been associated with exercise.

According to the researchers, their discovery indicates that any drug created to mimic the effect of exercise will need to target multiple molecules and pathways.

Dr Nolan Hoffman from the Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Science said: "This is a major breakthrough, as it allows scientists to use this information to design a drug that mimics the true beneficial changes caused by exercise."

Such a therapy could be extremely beneficial for people who are unable to engage in physical exercise for any reason.