Study Shows Brain Inflammation Releases Protein That Can Cause Loss of Muscle Function

A new study has shown how “brain inflammation releases a specific protein that travels from the brain to the muscles and causes a loss of muscle function.” The Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis's website has the news.

Researchers set to determine possible causes for muscle problems that often develop in patients with brain inflammation, seemingly independent of the central nervous system. The results of their study in fruit flies and mice could “identify ways to block this process, which could have implications for treating or preventing the muscle wasting sometimes associated with inflammatory diseases, including bacterial infections, Alzheimer’s disease and long COVID.”

Senior author Aaron Johnson says that the study “suggests that when we get sick, messenger proteins from the brain travel through the bloodstream and reduce energy levels in skeletal muscle.” The researchers then found that reactive oxygen species build up when the brain is exposed to inflammatory proteins from certain diseases, which then causes the brain to “produce an immune-related molecule called interleukin-6 (IL-6),” which was associated with reduced energy production in muscles’ mitochondria in mice.

The study further pinpoints targets for preventing this muscle weakness. IL-6 activates the “JAK-STAT pathway in muscle, and this is what causes the reduced energy production of mitochondria. Several therapeutics already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for other diseases can block this pathway.”