Scientists in the US claim to have boiled down some of the health benefits of exercise into a swallowable pill.

The novel drug is in the very early stages of development, but in initial experiments on rodents, the medicine appears to tap into a natural metabolic pathway usually triggered by exercise.

When administered to mice daily, the drug, called SLU-PP-332, seems to improve muscle function, fitness, and endurance – all without the animals having to move more than they’re used to.

Presenting the latest results at the American Chemical Society’s 2024 Spring meeting, principal investigator and chemist Bahaa Elgendy from Washington University claims that he and his team have succeeded where others have failed.

The metabolic target of their drug was once thought to be ‘undruggable’, or too challenging to trigger with pharmaceuticals. But that may not be the case after all.

If researchers can successfully target the same metabolic pathway in humans, Elgendy thinks it “could lead to the development of therapeutics for some of the most challenging diseases we are facing today, like neurodegenerative diseases and heart failure.”

For years now, scientists around the world have been working to build an ‘exercise pill’ that can convey at least some of the benefits of exercise to those who need it.

Physical activity taps into numerous metabolic pathways that can improve human health in a wide variety of ways, but one pathway with particularly impressive health benefits triggers estrogen-related receptors (ERRs).

These receptors are found in tissues of the muscle, heart, and brain, and they are known to regulate a wide swathe of genes associated with metabolism, immunity, inflammation, homeostasis, development, cellular growth, and reproduction.

Yet, historically, they’ve proved really difficult to target.