Exercise mimetic

An exercise mimetic is a drug that mimics some of the biological effects of physical exercise. Exercise is known to have an effect in preventing, treating, or ameliorating the effects of a variety of serious illnesses, including cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and psychiatric and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. As of 2021, no drug is known to have the same benefits.^[2][3][1]

Known biological targets affected by exercise have also been targets of drug discovery, with limited results. These known targets include:^[2]

The majority of the effect of exercise in reducing cardiovascular and all-cause mortality cannot be explained via improvements in quantifiable risk factors, such as blood cholesterol. This further increases the challenge of developing an effective exercise mimetic.^[1] Moreover, even if a broad spectrum exercise mimetic were invented, it is not necessarily the case that its public health effects would be superior to interventions to increase exercise in the population.^[1]