Muscles & Brain Enhanced By One Master Protein, Research Finds

Lisa Franchi April 13, 2015

We all have different skill sets. Some people are good at physical endeavours like running and sports, whilst others are good at mental activities like memorising dates and numbers. Whilst physical and mental aptitude may be two different things, they rely on a single metabolic protein that is responsible for controlling blood flow and the absorption of nutrients throughout the body – new research suggests.

Researchers from Salk Institute discovered the role of a single protein called oestrogen-related receptor gamma (ERRγ), which has been previously studied for its role in the heart and skeletal muscles. In 2011, scientists found that increasing the activity of ERRγ activity in the muscles of sedentary mice, which resulted to increased blood flow. They also found that the same protein also affects a whole host of muscle genes that convert fat to energy.

The new research suggest potential treatments in the field of regenerative and developmental medicine, as well as in developing ways on how to address learning and memory defects.

But even though studies suggest that ERRγ was active in the brain, researchers didn’t understand why the brain burns sugar, when it was previously shown to only burn fats. So for the current study, they looked more closely at what the protein was doing in brain cells.

They found that same with what it does in the muscles, ERRγ also stimulates metabolic genes in brain cells. However, this activation burned sugar than fats.

"We assumed that ERRγ did the same thing throughout the body," says Ronald Evans, director of Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory and senior author of the new paper. "But we learned that it’s different in the brain." ERRγ, they now conclude, turns on fat-burning pathways in muscles and sugar-burning pathways in the brain.

Researchers observed that the subjects missing ERRy were very slow learners. "Everyone can learn, but some people learn and memorize more efficiently than others, and we now think this could be linked to changes in brain metabolism."

"What we’ve shown is that memories are really built on a metabolic scaffold," Evans added. "And we think that if you want to understand learning and memory, you need to understand the circuits that underlie and power this process."

Source of this article: Food for thought: Master protein enhances learning and memory