Lord of the Genes

One Gene to rule them all,
One Gene to find them,
One Gene to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.

~ J.R.R. Tolkien….(sort of…)

In the linked article (http://tinyurl.com/6nzpvdw) you’ll be able to read a quick summary of a set of papers I came across a few months back during my daily perusal of the scientific journals (I know, I know, contain your jealousy, I’m aware of how exciting my life is…).

The studies are based on an off-shoot of a biochemical pathway (which seems to be one of the metabolic master controllers in the body) that I’ve been following the science of for nearly a decade now, when it was first discovered. With that in mind, when new understanding of any related pathway or points of stimulus or inhibition come out, there’s huge potential for this piece of the puzzle to be a key modulator of metabolism. This new finding might just be that key.

Quick summary, of the summary.  In studies on Nuclear receptor Co-Repressors (NCoR) knock out mice (knock out means the mice were bred to lack or have an inactive variant of a gene), the scientists found two interesting developments, firstly the mice’s ability in endurance activities doubled (they could run/ swim twice as far before exhaustion), and secondly they were more resistant to developing Insulin resistance and consequently Diabetes.

Depending on which tissue this knock out occurred you would get one or the other of the effects. If the gene was knocked out in adipose tissue (fat cells) then insulin resistance didn’t occur, even when they were induced to become obese (a known cause of Insulin resistance). If the knock out occurred in muscle tissue, then the endurance capacity effect was evident.

NCoR1 inhibits certain transcription factors, which are able to regulate gene expression, in muscle cells. A turning down of NCoR1 leads to an increase of these transcription factors, which in turn can activate genes that cause muscle mass to increase. In addition, the energy generating machinery of the cells, called mitochondria, were increased in number and activity.

In the fat cells however, knocking out NCoR1 resulted in an increase in insulin sensitivity, which is one of the key components that is broken in Diabetics and Pre-Diabetics. In addition, there was less tissue inflammation, another symptom which is prevalent in diabetes and most other disease states.

This is a really exciting development not only for health (not merely from a diabetic standpoint, it would also help the functional movement of specific populations such as the elderly amongst other positive health effects), but it could also hugely improve performance in sports.

I’ve been performing some trials on myself with a particular chemical which has been shown to modulate certain overlapping pathways involved in this cascade. So far it seems to be working very well within the limitations of my particular remit. I’m finding the endurance elements of my training a lot more comfortable and my bodyfat percentage is decreasing without any other intervention. I’ll let you know more as the evidence comes in, and if I’m right about this particular substance, it’s going to be huge.

Interesting times.