A common blood pressure drug may also prevent muscle loss that comes with age and inactivity, according to US researchers.

The promising results seen in mice have led researchers to begin organizing clinical trials in humans, said the study by scientists at Johns Hopkins University published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Using 40 mice that at 21 months old were considered geriatric, researchers found that when they immobilised a leg muscle and treated the subjects with losartan, no muscle mass was lost after three weeks.

Mice who did not receive the drug lost 20 per cent of their muscle mass in that time period.