Functional rice with tandemly repeated Cbl-b ubiquitin ligase inhibitory pentapeptide prevents denervation-induced muscle atrophy in vivo

Ubiquitin ligase Cbl-b play a critical role in non-loading-mediated skeletal muscle atrophy: Cbl-b ubiquitinates insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1), an important insulin-like growth factor-1 signaling intermediate molecule, leading to its degradation and a resulting loss in muscle mass. We reported that intramuscular injection of a pentapeptide, DGpYMP, which acts as a mimic of the phosphorylation site in IRS-1, significantly inhibited denervation-induced skeletal muscle loss. In order to explore the possibility of the prevention of muscle atrophy by diet therapy, we examined the effects of oral administration of transgenic rice containing Cblin (Cbl-b inhibitor) peptide (DGYMP) on denervation-induced muscle mass loss in frogs. We generated transgenic rice seeds in which 15 repeats of Cblin peptides with a WQ spacer were inserted into the rice storage protein glutelin for expression. A diet of the transgenic rice seeds had significant inhibitory effects on denervation-induced atrophy of the leg skeletal muscles in frogs, compared with those receiving a diet of wild-type rice.