Exercising is healthy, but not always appealing. Research led by Guadalupe Sabio from the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) may have found a "switch" that activates the desire to get moving, as it shows that during exercise the muscle activates proteins which encourage further activity. The paper is in .
"We have discovered how muscle itself regulates interest in exercise through a signaling pathway between muscle and brain that we didn't know about, and which is one of those responsible—as there must be several—for the fact that, when we exercise, we experience the impulse to train even more," explains Sabio, head of CNIO's Interaction between Organs in Metabolic Diseases Group. The article also shows that the proteins produced by muscle through exercise regulate each other. Thus, they prevent the desire to exercise from eventually harming the body.
The results are based on data obtained in animal models and also in humans (volunteers who performed controlled exercise, and patients with obesity). This suggests the identified signaling pathway "plays a crucial role in regulating physical activity in both mice and humans," and "highlights the potential therapeutic significance of this pathway in treating obesity and metabolic diseases," write the authors. First co-authors of the study are Leticia Herrera and Cintia Folgueira, researchers at the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC).
Three proteins that influence the desire for physical activity The group .