CLEVELAND, Ohio — As people age, their muscles become less able to recover from inactivity, poor nutrition, illness or injury.

Researchers led by Ohio University have received a five-year, $2.8 million award from the National Institutes of Health to study why that decline happens, including how skeletal muscle adapts to exercise and why those adaptations weaken with age.

The age-related progressive loss of muscle mass, strength and function is called sarcopenia. It can make walking and climbing stairs harder, and it can increase the risk of falls and fractures.

Although exercise remains the primary treatment for preventing muscle decline, many older adults are unable to exercise effectively due to frailty or existing health conditions. Currently, there are no FDA-approved drugs to treat sarcopenia.

“The population of older adults in the United States is growing rapidly, and with that comes an urgent need to better understand and address age-related muscle loss,” said study leader Cory Baumann, OU assistant professor and investigator in the Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute and the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Aging.

“Our research is focused on uncovering the molecular mechanisms that help muscles adapt and remain resilient,” Baumann said.

The research focuses on two proteins — human antigen R (HuR) and myosin binding protein H (MyBP-H) — that early findings suggest may play a critical role in protecting muscles from exercise-related injury and improving muscle resilience.

The NIH-funded project will explore whether targeting the HuR-MyBP-H pathway can improve muscle adaptation and resilience across the lifespan, Ohio University said. Researchers will study how muscles respond to exercise injury, aging and recovery.

The study will also examine whether MyBP-H can mimic the effects of exercise training.

“We hope this work will ultimately lead to new therapeutic strategies that improve strength, mobility and quality of life for aging individuals, especially those who are unable to benefit fully from exercise alone,” Baumann said.

Collaborators on the project include researchers from the Ohio State University, Loyola University Chicago and the University of Maryland.