Establishing molecular mechanisms of and countermeasures to muscle decline in space

为了避免灭绝，人类最终必须殖民于其他行星体。这是世界各航天机构的长期目标。这一长期目标的一个主要生物学障碍是在太空飞行过程中肌肉的衰退。同样，随着年龄的增长，肌肉的衰退也是英国的一个主要公共健康问题。我们已经将一个小蠕虫发展成一个模型，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，这种蠕虫的肌肉表现出肌肉蛋白质表达减少的结果，这是肌肉基因表达的主要调节器表达减少的结果。这些蠕虫和宇航员一样，也表现出由于胰岛素效应改变而导致新陈代谢改变的迹象。在这里，我们打算测试一下，这些蠕虫是否像过去的航天和地面实验预测的那样，在太空中更弱。太空中的肌肉力量测试已经通过了美国国家航空航天局的审查和批准。我们还建议测试肌肉附着改变和/或胰岛素信号改变是否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太空中的胰岛素信号来逆转这些影响。欧空局已经审查并批准对太空中肌肉下降的原因和反措施进行测试。BBSRC为这些研究提供的资金将使我们能够进行这些研究，并将增强我们对太空中肌肉衰退的分子原因、后果和对策的理解。根据NASA和ESA收到的这项工作的分数，这项工作的完成将使英国牢牢保持在空间生物学领域的领先地位。此外，由于肌肉随着年龄的增长而下降是英国和其他地方面临的一个问题，这项工作的发现显然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.