DRDO explores plant-based compounds to tackle muscular impairment at high altitude

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 26

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is exploring the feasibility of using plant-based compounds to counter skeletal muscle  impairments individuals deployed in high altitude areas.

Known as polyphenols, certain plant-based compounds have shown anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties and appear to mainly act by reversing oxidative stress and cell membrane dysfunction to eventually ameliorate skeletal muscle impairments.

Polyphenols, abundantly available in edible plants, have shown great potential in therapeutics and are vital for health as they regulate metabolic disorders, chronic illness, obesity, cancer, etc. Recent research has also portrayed polyphenols as a performance enhancer.

“The available literature recommends that bio-active polyphenols with their potential anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties could be a probable solution for high altitude induced skeletal muscle impairments and thereby improving performance,” a study published recently by scientists at DRDO’s Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences has suggested.

Pointing out that hypobaric hypoxia induced skeletal muscle responses show a dynamic feature that is dependent on the duration of hypoxic exposure and availability of oxygen percentage, the study observed that skeletal muscles are tolerant to hypoxia to a certain limit, that is, 2,000-3,000 metres. Climbing over 3,500 metres engenders severe oxidative muscle damage and decline in physical performance, which demands a promising therapeutic agent, the study said.

Hypobaric hypoxia is explained as a medical condition resulting from deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching the body tissues in an environment where the atmospheric pressure is low due to the increase in altitude. Apart from naturally occurring compounds, synthetic or laboratory produced therapeutic agents to mitigate such muscular degeneration are also under investigation.

Extreme environmental conditions prevailing in extreme environmental conditions at high altitude induce skeletal muscle atrophy in unacclimatised persons, impair skeletal muscle physiology, decrease regeneration and decelerate physical activity. This is because of lower levels of atmospheric oxygen, which is a very essential ingredient for cellular aerobic respiration, enzyme activity and protein synthesis.

Turmeric, red grapes, berries, peanuts, rhodiola and green tea are some of the examples listed in the study which contain significant amounts of polyphenols, like curcumin, catechins, resveratrol, quercetin, salidroside which are believed to have significant therapeutic potential.