Chakraborty Samrat, Ben-David Raz, Shemer Shenhav
Faculty of Biology, Technion Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
FEBS J. 2025 Dec;292(24):6481-6496. doi: 10.1111/febs.70241. Epub 2025 Aug 28.
Skeletal muscle is essential for life as it enables physical movement, maintains posture, is crucial for breathing, and serves as a major site for energy and carbohydrate metabolism. Pathological conditions that reduce skeletal muscle mass and function-such as muscular dystrophies, motor-neuron diseases, cancer, type-2 diabetes, or aging-have detrimental effects on human health, reducing quality of life and survival. Currently, exercise is the only validated treatment for increasing muscle mass and function, but it is impractical for bedridden patients or the frail elderly. Significant advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying atrophy of slow- or fast-twitch muscle fibers have identified numerous previously unknown key players that may show promise as potential drug targets. Here, we review these recent advances and discuss the potential of these discovered mechanisms as therapeutic targets to combat muscle wasting.
骨骼肌对生命至关重要，因为它能实现身体运动、维持姿势、对呼吸至关重要，并且是能量和碳水化合物代谢的主要场所。减少骨骼肌质量和功能的病理状况，如肌肉萎缩症、运动神经元疾病、癌症、2型糖尿病或衰老，会对人类健康产生有害影响，降低生活质量和生存率。目前，运动是唯一被证实能增加肌肉质量和功能的治疗方法，但对于卧床患者或体弱的老年人来说并不实际。在理解慢肌或快肌纤维萎缩背后的分子机制方面取得的重大进展，已经确定了许多以前未知的关键因素，这些因素有望成为潜在的药物靶点。在这里，我们回顾这些最新进展，并讨论这些发现的机制作为对抗肌肉萎缩的治疗靶点的潜力。
