Giacomello Emiliana, Nicoletti Claudio, Canato Marta, Toniolo Luana
Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy.
Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy.
Nutrients. 2025 Mar 10;17(6):969. doi: 10.3390/nu17060969.
Growth in the aging world population is accompanied by an increase in comorbidities, profoundly impacting the quality of life of older people. This development has motivated a large effort to investigate the mechanisms underlying aging and the search for countermeasures. The most investigated strategies envisage the control of diet and physical exercise, which exploit both common and distinct mechanisms to promote health. Since the application of nutritional and exercise protocols to aged persons introduces several issues due to their disabled state, some strategies have been developed. The nutritional approach exploits a wide range of compounds, including calorie restriction mimetics, supplements, antioxidants, and others. In the context of exercise, in recent years, molecules able to provide similar effects to exercise, the so-called exercise mimetics, have been developed. To have a better perspective on exercise mimetics and their connection with nutrition, we performed a systematic search of the PubMed and Scopus databases using the term "exercise mimetics". In total, 97 research articles were selected and discussed. The present review provides evidence of the presence of multiple exercise-mimetic compounds and physical strategies that can target metabolic pathways, oxidative stress defense mechanisms, or myokine modulation. Interestingly, this review highlights that an important number of exercise mimetics are represented by products of natural origin and supplements assimilable with diet. This evidence provides a further link between exercise and nutrition and confers a central role on nutrition in the context of exercise mimetics.
全球老年人口的增长伴随着合并症的增加，这对老年人的生活质量产生了深远影响。这一发展促使人们付出巨大努力来研究衰老的潜在机制并寻找应对措施。研究最多的策略设想通过控制饮食和体育锻炼来实现，它们利用共同和不同的机制来促进健康。由于老年人身体机能受限，将营养和运动方案应用于老年人会引发一些问题，因此人们开发了一些策略。营养方法利用了多种化合物，包括热量限制模拟物、补充剂、抗氧化剂等。在运动方面，近年来，已经开发出了能够产生与运动相似效果的分子，即所谓的运动模拟物。为了更好地了解运动模拟物及其与营养的联系，我们使用 “运动模拟物” 一词对PubMed和Scopus数据库进行了系统检索。总共筛选并讨论了97篇研究文章。本综述提供了证据，证明存在多种可以针对代谢途径、氧化应激防御机制或肌因子调节的运动模拟化合物和物理策略。有趣的是，本综述强调，大量的运动模拟物是天然来源的产品和可与饮食同化的补充剂。这一证据进一步证明了运动与营养之间的联系，并赋予了营养在运动模拟物背景下的核心作用。
