Matthew Campbell et al. have recently published a new study in the journal of Geroscience demonstrating, “Intermittent treatment with elamipretide preserves exercise tolerance in aged female mice.” Elamipretide (ELAM) is a short tetrapeptide that interacts with cardiolipin and cardiolipin-interacting proteins on the inner mitochondrial membrane. It improves in vivo mitochondria function, increases fatigue resistance, and restores redox status in skeletal muscle of aged female mice. Because of ELAM’s peptide backbone it has poor bioavailability through gut digestion. Previous studies have used direct injections for short-term treatments and surgically installed osmotic pumps for long-term treatments to evaluate physiological improvements by ELAM. Due to this treatment limitation, it was unclear whether ELAM can preserve cardiac and skeletal muscle function during aging.

This study investigated whether 8 months of treatment twice weekly with ELAM could prevent functional decline in cardiac and skeletal muscle. To accomplish this, aged female mice were injected with ELAM for 8 months to measure mitochondrial energetics, whole body endurance, and muscle fatigue resistance. Dr. Campbell et al. found that 8 months of treatment preserved treadmill performance and left ventricular mass index. However, there was only modest protection of diastolic function and skeletal muscle force production and no effect on kidney function. This study showed that functional improvement by ELAM is more efficacious with continuous treatment.