Natural Isoflavonoid Tectorigenin Protects Denervated Muscle via AMPK/SIRT1/PGC-1α
- In sciatic-nerve-transected mice, tectorigenin preserved muscle mass and fibre size, lowered atrophy-related ubiquitin ligases, reduced oxidative stress and improved mitochondrial integrity.
- It restored AMPK/SIRT1/PGC-1α signalling and protected nutrient-starved C2C12 myotubes.
- Inhibitors of AMPK, SIRT1 or PGC-1α abolished the benefit in vitro and in vivo.
💡 Points Based on the abstract
The inhibitor panel gives a clean pathway-dependence argument, but all three inhibitors are blunt and the pathway is so central to muscle metabolism that dependence alone doesn't show tectorigenin binds anything specific. There are no PK data or a defined target here; denervation in mice is also an acute model, so the clinically relevant question is whether it works after atrophy is established, at a dose reachable in people.
📄 Paper · British Journal of Pharmacology ↗ Tectorigenin protects against muscle atrophy from in vitro nutrient deprivation and in vivo denervation by activating the AMPK/SIRT1/PGC-1α pathway