Chemical compound could offer treatment for healthy aging

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – In our Healthline News, researchers are looking at ways to promote healthy aging. They are looking at a new chemical compound that’s helping geriatric mice lose weight while adding muscle and strength.

The Pennington Biomedical Research Center explains what this research could mean for people in Baton Rouge.

“The critical need for this type of research is that we have a large number of individuals who are entering older age with obesity that are at high risk for sarcopenia,” said Christopher Axelrod, MS, Director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center’s Integrated Physiology and Molecular Medicine Laboratory.

Axelrod said older adults with sarcopenic obesity suffer from accelerated muscle loss. They become less active and are at a high risk for falls, stroke and heart disease.

“From this study, what we learned is that by training the mitochondria to be less efficient, we can actually extend healthy lifespan in mice that are being fed excess fat in their diet,” said Axelrod.

Axelrod and other researchers have created a chemical compound called BAM15. The study showed it helped elderly mice with obesity lose weight.

“We identified that these mice actually were stronger, they were more fit, they moved more,” said Axelrod.

Now, their goal is to test this compound in larger animals.

“And ultimately find a formula of this compound that can be provided to humans, so like any other drug discovery pipeline, our goal is to improve human health,” said Axelrod.

Axelrod said people are living longer. He said this study is the step in finding ways to promote healthy aging.

More research will be needed to determine its effectiveness for people.

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