Establishing molecular mechanisms of and countermeasures to muscle decline in space

人类最终必须殖民其他行星，以避免灭绝。这是世界航天机构的长期目标。实现这一长期目标的一个主要生物障碍是太空飞行期间肌肉的衰退。同样，随着年龄的增长，肌肉的衰退是英国的一个主要公共卫生问题。我们已经开发了一个小蠕虫模型，用于理解和对抗太空飞行和年龄对肌肉的影响。在太空中，就像人类的肌肉一样，这种蠕虫的肌肉显示出肌肉蛋白表达的减少，这是肌肉基因表达的主要调节因子表达减少的结果。这些蠕虫，像宇航员一样，也显示出由于胰岛素作用改变而导致的新陈代谢改变的迹象。在这里，我们建议测试，如果从过去的航天和地面实验预测，这些蠕虫在太空中较弱。在太空中进行肌肉力量测试已经被美国宇航局审查并批准飞行。我们还建议测试改变肌肉附着和/或改变胰岛素信号是否会导致飞行中蠕虫肌肉的变化，以及我们是否可以通过改变肌肉附着或胰岛素信号来逆转这些影响。欧空局已经审查并批准了对空间肌肉衰退的原因和应对措施的测试。BBSRC对这些研究的资助将使我们能够开展这些研究，并将提高我们对太空肌肉衰退的分子原因、后果和对策的理解。根据美国航天局和欧空局对这项工作的评分，这项工作的完成将使联合王国坚定地保持在空间生物学领域的最前沿。此外，由于肌肉随着年龄的增长而下降是英国和其他地方的一个问题，因此这项工作的发现很可能与理解和计算地球上肌肉随着年龄的下降有关。

People must ultimately colonize other planetary bodies in order to avoid extinction. This is a long term goal of the world's space agencies. A major biological hurdle to this long term goal is the decay of muscle during spaceflight. Similarly, the decay of muscle with age is a major public health problem in the UK. We have developed a small worm into a model for understanding and countering the effects of spaceflight and age upon muscle. In space, much like human muscle, the muscles of this worm display decreased expression of muscle proteins as the result of decreased expression of a master regulator of muscle gene expression. These worms, like astronauts, also display hints of altered metabolism as the result of altered insulin effects. Here we propose to test if, as predicted from past spaceflight and ground based experiments, these worms are weaker in space. The testing of muscle strength in space has already been reviewed and approved to be flown by NASA. We also propose to test if altered muscle attachments and/or altered insulin signalling cause the changes in worm muscle in flight and if we can reverse these effects by altering muscle attachments or insulin signalling in space. The testing of causes of and counter measures to muscle decline in space has already been reviewed and approved to be flown by ESA. BBSRC funding for these studies will allow us to carry them out and will enhance our understanding of the molecular causes of, consequences of, and countermeasures to muscle decline in space. Based upon the scores this work received by both NASA and ESA, completion of this work will firmly keep the UK at the forefront of the field of space biology. Additionally, as muscle decline with age is a problem for the UK and elsewhere there is the clear possibility that findings from this work may be relevant to understanding and counting the decline of muscle with age on Earth.