A new protein curbs the hypertrophic effect of myostatin inhibition, adding remarkable endurance to motor performance in mice

Abstract

Current efforts to improve muscle performance are focused on muscle trophism via inhibition of the myostatin pathway: however they have been unsuccessful in the clinic to date. In this study, a novel protein has been created by combining the soluble activin receptor, a strong myostatin inhibitor, to the C-terminal agrin nLG3 domain (ActR-Fc-nLG3) involved in the development and maintenance of neuromuscular junctions. Both domains are connected via the constant region of an Igg1 monoclonal antibody. Surprisingly, young male mice treated with ActR-Fc-nLG3 showed a remarkably increased endurance in the rotarod test, significantly longer than the single domain compounds ActR-Fc and Fc-nLG3 treated animals. This increase in endurance was accompanied by only a moderate increase in body weights and wet muscle weights of ActR-Fc-nLG3 treated animals and were lower than expected. The myostatin inhibitor ActR-Fc induced, as expected, a highly significant increase in body and muscle weights compared to control animals and ActR-Fc-nLG3 treated animals. Moreover, the prolonged endurance effect was not observed when ActR-Fc and Fc-nLG3 were dosed simultaneously as a mixture and the body and muscle weights of these animals were very similar to ActR-Fc treated animals, indicating that both domains need to be on one molecule. Muscle morphology induced by ActR-Fc-nLG3 did not appear to be changed however, close examination of the neuromuscular junction showed significantly increased acetylcholine receptor surface area for ActR-Fc-nLG3 treated animals compared to controls. This result is consistent with published observations that endurance training in rats increased acetylcholine receptor quantity at neuromuscular junctions and provide evidence that improving nerve-muscle interaction could be an important factor for sustaining long term muscle activity.