Professor Park Jung-hoon Research Team
Proves Muscle Mass Improvement Effect
Professor Park Jung-hoon and his research team at the Graduate School of International Agricultural Technology, Seoul National University, have identified a new mechanism for treating sarcopenia.
According to Seoul National University on the 27th, Professor Park's team discovered that 'PROKR1' activates 'CREB,' which increases the expression of 'NR4A2,' a representative exercise-responsive transcription factor. This promotes the differentiation of oxidative muscle fibers and demonstrates improvements in muscle mass and strength.
This is the world's first identification of the PROKR1-CREB-NR4A2 signaling mechanism in muscle, presenting a new drug target for the prevention and treatment of sarcopenia, sarcopenic obesity, and muscle loss caused by obesity treatment?conditions with high unmet medical needs. It is regarded as laying the scientific foundation for the development of new drugs to treat sarcopenia.
Dr. Moksongsoo Mok, PhD candidate at the Department of Systems Pharmacology, Graduate School of International Agricultural Technology, Seoul National University (left, first author), and Professor Junghoon Park (right)
Sarcopenia is a disease characterized by a decrease in muscle mass and strength due to an imbalance in muscle protein synthesis and degradation, with its prevalence rapidly increasing worldwide due to global aging. Until now, treatments have focused on mechanisms involving male hormones and myostatin, but these have failed to demonstrate clinical efficacy or have shown serious side effects such as carcinogenicity.
The research findings were published online on January 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study was conducted with funding from the Ministry of Science and ICT and supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea through the Basic Research Program in Science and Technology (Mid-career Researcher Program).
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