Researchers test anti-frailty pill in older adults
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A so-called ‘anti-frailty’ drug has shown promise in a small study, increasing muscle mass in the arms and legs of healthy older adults without causing side effects.
The medication is an oral drug called MK-677 that stimulates the normal release of growth hormone. Growth hormone is secreted throughout the day by the pituitary gland. The hormone, which peaks in puberty and gradually declines thereafter, plays a role in promoting muscle mass, decreasing fat mass and keeping bone and cartilage healthy. The reduction in growth hormone has long been thought to be a key reason why people become frail in old age.
The study, by researchers at the University of Virginia Health System, involved 65 men and women ranging in age from 60 to 81. Half of the participants received a single daily dose of MK-677 for a year and half received a placebo. After a year, the volunteers on the placebo were given the drug and those who got the drug in the first year were randomly assigned to continue receiving it or a placebo. The study found that the drug restored 20% of muscle-mass loss associated with normal aging. In seniors who took the drug, levels of growth hormone increased to those found in healthy young adults, and the pituitary gland released growth hormone in the normal pattern throughout the day.
The effects of the drug lasted for those who received it for the full two years but went away when the medication was stopped. The study appears in this week’s issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers caution that the medication is experimental and more studies are needed. This study was too small to evaluate the long-term effects of increasing growth-hormone secretion. An editorial accompanying the study cautioned that manipulation of growth hormone should be limited to controlled clinical trials. The treatment ‘is not ready for prime time,’ said the author of the editorial, Dr. Marc R. Blackman of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
But one of the study’s authors, Dr. Michael O. Thorner, noted:
‘Our study opens the door to the possibility of developing treatments that avert the frailty of aging. The search for anti-frailty medications has become increasingly important because the average American is expected to live into his or her 80s, and most seniors want to stay strong enough to remain independent as they age.’
-- Shari Roan