The Buck’s Impact Circle supports a project aimed at taming age-related muscle loss via the gut

Sarcopenia, age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, increases the risk of falls, fractures and overall functional decline. There are no FDA-approved treatments for the condition. The Buck’s Impact Circle donor group hopes to change that by supporting a project that will test specific microbial metabolites found in the gut to determine if they reduce sarcopenia in aging mice.

The $100,000 Impact Circle award goes to Taylor Valentino, a postdoctoral fellow in the Winer lab where researchers focus, in part, on the microbiome, the vast community of microbes that live in our gut. “I am so grateful to the Impact Circle for their support of a project that is so close to my heart,” said the Novato native who got his PhD in physiology and competes in ultra marathons, an activity shown to preserve muscle mass. “Our gut and our muscles are in close communication, and exercise impacts both of them,” he says. “Skeletal muscle makes up 30 – 40 percent of our body mass and plays such a crucial role in how we age. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to do the amount of exercise needed to maintain muscle capacity. I am excited to see results in aging mice.”

Valentino and his collaborators at the University of Kentucky have already shown that two gut microbial metabolites, pipecolic acid and succinate, reduced the loss of muscle mass and strength in young mice who were immobilized for 10 days. In addition to determining if the metabolites can address sarcopenia in aging mice, he also wants to determine the ideal dosages of the metabolites and to see if there are any negative side effects during eight months of treatments. The male and female mice will also be tested for cardiorespiratory fitness and cognition at various stages of the research.

Valentino notes that sarcopenia is multifactorial, involving mitochondrial dysfunction, chronic inflammation, protein degradation, problems with neuromuscular communication and the loss of muscle stem cells with age. Those hallmarks of aging will be studied in the mice as he identifies the mechanisms involved in any improvements in the animals.

 “We start losing muscle mass in our 30’s and 40’s; by the time we reach our 70’s we lose about one percent of our muscle mass and four percent of our muscle strength each year,” he said. “If our results play out as we hope, we will have a potential therapeutic to combat sarcopenia and potentially in other instances in which the loss of muscle health declines, such as hospitalization, injury, disability and space exploration.”   

The Impact Circle

Established in 2014, the Impact Circle is a peer group of like-minded philanthropists who advance scientific discovery at the Buck by pooling their resources to provide seed money for early-stage projects. The pre-clinical research supported by this year’s award is a necessary step in the process of getting a treatment into the clinic.

In addition to the satisfaction of supporting ground-breaking research (and tracking its success), Impact Circle members also get a front row seat in learning about the scientific process.  Previous awards have focused on efforts to support brain resilience, the role of oxytocin in aging, and exploring whether extremely long-lived queen honeybees can inform research on human aging.

Stephen Sellick and his husband Alan Kick are relative newcomers to the Impact Circle.  Living outside Healdsburg, they came on a tour of the Buck with the North Bay Chapter of the Modern Elder Academy earlier this year. Sellick said they were immediately intrigued with the possibility of joining the donor group; as soon as they got home, they emailed for more information. “The concept of participatory, high impact philanthropy appeals to us,” says Sellick, who is semi-retired and President of the San Francisco chapter of the Private Directors Association and on the board of the Sonoma County Regional Park Foundation.  “In addition to supporting great science, belonging to the Impact Circle gives us the ability to be engaged, to learn about the science, and to enjoy the company of like-minded individuals.” Three researchers competed for this year’s award, and Sellick says all of them had great scientific merit. He thinks Valentino’s enthusiasm, evident in this “thank you video” pushed him into the lead. “His passion for his project was infectious in the best possible way.”      

Membership in the Impact Circle remains open.  Those interested should contact Lisa Palma, Director of Philanthropy, at lpalma@buckinstitute.org.