# Octpamine controls adaptation to endurance exercise in Drosophila

> **NIH NIH R01** · WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $441,380

## Abstract

Project Summary
Endurance exercise is a highly effective intervention for ensuring healthy metabolism and maintaining healthy
function during aging, but is unavailable to patients with illnesses or injuries that restrict their movement. Here,
we follow up on previous discoveries from the fruit fly model system showing that stimulation of octopamine
secretion from the brain acts through receptors in muscle and fat to coordinate benefits of exercise in
sedentary animals. Here, we propose to identify genetic factors that mediate increased neuronal branching in
the exercising brain (Aim 1), elucidate the pathway regulating the response to octopamine in exercising muscle
(Aim 2), and by extending these results into humans for the first time using virtual reality stimulation to produce
some benefits of exercise in sedentary humans (Aim 3).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10802669
- **Project number:** 2R01AG059683-06A1
- **Recipient organization:** WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Robert John Wessells
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $441,380
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2018-09-30 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10802669

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10802669, Octpamine controls adaptation to endurance exercise in Drosophila (2R01AG059683-06A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-14 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10802669. Licensed CC0.

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