I read about this yesterday and thought it was pretty cool:
Exercise In A Pill: Researchers Identify Drugs That Enhance Exercise Endurance"The team of scientists, led by Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Ronald M. Evans, Ph.D., a professor in the Salk Institute's Gene Expression Laboratory report in the July 31 advance online edition of the journal Cell that simultaneously triggering both pathways with oral drugs turned laboratory mice into long-distance runners and conferred many of exercise's other benefits." <more at link>
Here's a link to the journal article referenced:
Cell -- Narkar et al.
"In this study, we show that the AMP-mimetic AICAR can increase endurance in sedentary mice by genetically reprogramming muscle metabolism in a PPARδ-dependent manner. We also found that a PPARδ agonist in combination with exercise synergistically induces fatigue-resistant type I fiber specification and mitochondrial biogenesis, ultimately enhancing physical performance. These changes correlate with an unexpected but interesting establishment of a muscle endurance gene signature that is unique to the drug-exercise paradigm. Such a signature is an outcome of molecular crosstalk and perhaps a physical association between exercise-activated AMPK and PPARδ. These findings identify a novel pharmacologic strategy to reprogram muscle endurance by targeting AMPK-PPARδ signaling axis with orally active ligands."
<...>
Although potentiation of extramuscular adaptations by PPARδ and AMPK agonists remains to be studied, we found that drug treatment can reduce epididymal fat mass, possibly conferring additional systemic benefits. It is noteworthy that PPARδ is important for normal cardiac contractility, as well as for the endocrine function of adipose tissue (Wang et al., 2003, Cheng et al., 2004). Similarly, the activation of AMPK by metformin is thought to mediate its ability to lower blood glucose levels (Shaw et al., 2005). In addition to increasing performance in athletes, exercise has beneficial effects in a wide range of pathophysiological conditions, such as respiratory disorders, cardiovascular abnormalities, type 2 diabetes, and cancer risk."
<...>
"In this study, we revealed that synthetic PPARδ activation and exercise—and, more importantly, AMPK activation alone—provide a robust transcriptional cue that reprograms the skeletal muscle genome and dramatically enhances endurance."
So, not only does it increase your endurance overall, but it also increases the number of slow-twitch fat burning muscles you have while just sitting there. Those types of muscles are what Olypians and Lance Armstrong and the like get through all of those hours of training.
I want some.
