A research team from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has pioneered the world's first cellular senescence atlas of aging human skeletal muscle, leading to the discovery that a commonly used HIV drug could effectively combat sarcopenia—a age-related muscle loss condition affecting 10 percent of adults aged 60 and above worldwide.
The groundbreaking study, which sheds light on one of the leading causes of falls and fractures among the elderly, involved collecting muscle samples from 10 men and isolating over 50,000 cell nuclei.
The team integrated data from five aging-related gene databases to construct the unprecedented atlas of muscle aging.
Using this new resource, researchers identified a significant increase in the secretion of senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) factors within the senescent skeletal muscle cells of older adults.
These factors promote chronic inflammation and accelerate the progression of sarcopenia.
Most notably, the team discovered that a small-molecule drug currently used to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can improve muscle structure and function. The drug offers a promising therapeutic approach to slowing or reversing muscle degeneration.
Professor Wang Hua-ting from CUHK's Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology confirmed that the HIV drug is currently in animal trials and shows strong potential for inhibiting cellular senescence and treating inflammation.
He cautioned, however, that human clinical trials are still some time away. Future research will also focus on developing integrated treatments for sarcopenia linked to osteoarthritis.
