Chronic β2‐adrenoceptor agonist treatment alters muscle proteome and functional adaptations induced by high intensity training in young men

Key points While several studies have investigated the effects of exercise training in human skeletal muscle and the chronic effect of β2-agonist treatment in rodent muscle, their effects on muscle proteome signature with related functional measures in humans are still incompletely understood. Herein we show that daily β2-agonist treatment attenuates training-induced enhancements in exercise performance and maximal oxygen consumption, and alters muscle proteome signature and phenotype in trained young men. Daily β2-agonist treatment abolished several of the training-induced enhancements in muscle oxidative capacity and caused a repression of muscle metabolic pathways; furthermore, β2-agonist treatment induced a slow-to-fast twitch muscle phenotype transition. The present study indicates that chronic β2-agonist treatment confounds the positive effect of high intensity training on exercise performance and oxidative capacity, which is of interest for the large proportion of persons using inhaled β2-agonists on a daily basis, including athletes. Abstract Although the effects of training have been studied for decades, data on muscle proteome signature remodelling induced by high intensity training in relation to functional changes in humans remains incomplete. Likewise, β2-agonists are frequently used to counteract exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, but the effects β2-agonist treatment on muscle remodelling and adaptations to training are unknown. In a placebo-controlled parallel study, we randomly assigned 21 trained men to 4 weeks of high intensity training with (HIT+β2A) or without (HIT) daily inhalation of β2-agonist (terbutaline, 4 mg dose−1). Of 486 proteins identified by mass-spectrometry proteomics of muscle biopsies sampled before and after the intervention, 32 and 85 were changing (false discovery rate (FDR) ≤5%) with the intervention in HIT and HIT+β2A, respectively. Proteome signature changes were different in HIT and HIT+β2A (P = 0.005), wherein β2-agonist caused a repression of 25 proteins in HIT+β2A compared to HIT, and an upregulation of 7 proteins compared to HIT. β2-Agonist repressed or even downregulated training-induced enrichment of pathways related to oxidative phosphorylation and glycogen metabolism, but upregulated pathways related to histone trimethylation and the nucleosome. Muscle contractile phenotype changed differently in HIT and HIT+β2A (P ≤ 0.001), with a fast-to-slow twitch transition in HIT and a slow-to-fast twitch transition in HIT+β2A. β2-Agonist attenuated training-induced enhancements in maximal oxygen consumption (P ≤ 0.01) and exercise performance (6.1 vs. 11.6%, P ≤ 0.05) in HIT+β2A compared to HIT. These findings indicate that daily β2-agonist treatment attenuates the beneficial effects of high intensity training on exercise performance and oxidative capacity, and causes remodelling of muscle proteome signature towards a fast-twitch phenotype.