Summary: Regular physical exercise, especially resistance training, can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
Using a mouse model, the team demonstrated a reduction in Alzheimer’s indicators, such as beta-amyloid plaques, and normalized levels of stress hormones, after exercise training. Not only does resistance training provide physical benefits, but it also appears to reduce Alzheimer’s-associated behavioral problems.
The study advocates the use of resistance training as a reasonable therapy for Alzheimer’s patients.
Keywords:
- Researchers found that resistance training can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms and serves as a cost-effective therapeutic option.
- The study showed that resistance training reduced the formation of beta-amyloid plaques, a key feature of Alzheimer’s disease, in transgenic mouse models.
- Resistance training also helped mitigate behavioral problems often associated with Alzheimer’s, such as hyperactivity, thereby improving the overall well-being of the subjects.
Source: FAPESP
Regular physical exercise, such as resistance training, can prevent Alzheimer’s disease, or at least delay its symptoms, and serves as a simple and inexpensive therapy for Alzheimer’s patients.
This is the conclusion of an article published in Frontiers in Neuroscience by Brazilian researchers affiliated with the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) and the University of São Paulo (USP).
Resistance training involves the contraction of specific muscles against external resistance and is considered an important strategy for increasing muscle mass, strength and bone density, and for improving overall body composition, functional capacity and balance. Credit: Neuroscience News
Although elderly people and dementia patients are unlikely to be able to do long daily runs or perform other high-intensity aerobic exercises, these activities are the focus of most scientific studies on Alzheimer’s.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends resistance training as the best option for training balance, improving posture and preventing falls.
Resistance training involves the contraction of specific muscles against external resistance and is considered an important strategy for increasing muscle mass, strength and bone density, and for improving overall body composition, functional capacity and balance.
It also helps to prevent or reduce sarcopenia (muscle atrophy), making everyday tasks easier to perform.
To observe the neuroprotective effects of this practice, researchers at UNIFESP’s Departments of Physiology and Psychobiology, and the Department of Biochemistry at USP’s Institute of Chemistry (IQ-USP), conducted experiments involving transgenic mice with a mutation responsible for the build-up of beta -amyloid. plaque in the brain.
The protein accumulates in the central nervous system, weakening synaptic connections and damaging neurons, all of which are features of Alzheimer’s disease.
During the study, which was funded by FAPESP, the mice were trained to climb a 110 cm ladder with an inclination of 80° and 2 cm between steps. Loads were attached to the tails corresponding to 75%, 90% and 100% of body weight. The experiment mimicked certain types of resistance training performed by humans in gyms.
At the end of a four-week training period, blood samples were taken to measure plasma levels of corticosterone, the hormone in mice equivalent to cortisol in humans; increasing levels in response to stress increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
Levels of the hormone were normal (similar to those found in the control group that included animals without the mutation) in the trained mice, and analysis of their brain tissue showed a reduction in the formation of beta-amyloid plaques.
“This confirms that physical activity can reverse neuropathological changes that cause clinical symptoms of the disease,” said Henrique Correia Campos, first author of the paper.
“We also observed the animals’ behavior to assess their anxiety in the open field test [which measures avoidance of the central area of a box, the most stress-inducing area] and found that resistance training reduced the hypermovement to similar levels as the controls among mice with the phenotype associated with Alzheimer’s, says Deidiane Elisa Ribeiro, co-author of the article and researcher at IQ-USP’s neuroscience laboratory.
Agitation, restlessness and wandering are frequent early symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.
“Resistance training is increasingly proving an effective strategy for avoiding symptoms of sporadic Alzheimer’s [not directly caused by a single inherited genetic mutation]which is multifactorial and may be associated with aging, or to delay their onset in familial Alzheimer’s.
“The main possible reason for this effectiveness is the anti-inflammatory effect of resistance training,” said Beatriz Monteiro Longo, last author of the paper and professor of neurophysiology at UNIFESP.
Review of the literature
The animal model study was based on a review of the literature published in Frontiers in Neurosciencewhere the same group at UNIFESP collected clinical evidence that the benefits of resistance training include positive effects on cognitive dysfunction, memory impairment and behavioral problems in Alzheimer’s patients, and concluded that it may be a reasonable alternative or adjuvant therapy.
Researchers from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) in Brazil also participated in the study.
“Alzheimer’s doesn’t just affect the patient. The whole family is affected, especially in low-income households,” said Caroline Vieira Azevedo, first author of the review article and PhD student at UNIFESP.
“Both articles offer information that can be used to stimulate the design of public policy. Imagine the cost savings if symptoms in older patients are delayed by ten years.”
About this exercise and research news about Alzheimer’s disease
Author: João Silva
Source: FAPESP
Contact: João Silva – FAPESP
Picture: Image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Neuroprotective effects of resistance physical exercise on the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease” by Henrique Correia Campos et al. Frontiers in Neuroscience
Abstract
Neuroprotective effects of resistance physical exercise on the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease
Introduction: Physical exercise has beneficial effects by providing neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory responses to AD. However, most studies have been conducted with aerobic exercises, and few have examined the effects of other modalities that also show positive effects on AD, such as resistance training (RE).
In addition to the benefits of developing muscle strength, balance and muscular endurance that favor improvements in the quality of life of the elderly, RE reduces amyloid burden and local inflammation, promotes memory and cognitive improvements, and protects the cortex and hippocampus from the degeneration that occurs in AD. Similar to AD patients, double transgenic APPswe/PS1dE9 (APP/PS1) mice show Αβ plaques in the cortex and hippocampus, hypermovement, memory impairment, and exacerbated inflammatory response.
Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of 4 weeks of RE intermittent exercise on the prevention and recovery from these AD-related neuropathological conditions in APP/PS1 mice.
Methods: For this purpose, 6-7 month old male APP/PS1 transgenic mice and their littermates, negative for the mutations (CTRL), were divided into three groups: CTRL, APP/PS1, APP/PS1+RE. RE training lasted four weeks, and at the end of the program the animals were tested in the open field test for locomotor activity and in the object recognition test to evaluate recognition memory. The brains were collected for immunohistochemical analysis of Aβ plaques and microglia, and blood was collected for plasma corticosterone by ELISA analysis.
Results: APP/PS1 transgenic sedentary mice showed increased hippocampal Aβ plaques and higher plasma corticosterone levels, as well as hyperlocomotion and reduced central crossings in the open field test, compared to APP/PS1 trained and control animals. The intermittent program of RE was able to restore the behavioral, corticosterone, and Aβ changes to CTRL levels. In addition, the RE protocol increased the number of microglial cells in the hippocampus of APP/PS1 mice. Despite these changes, no memory impairment was observed in APP/PS1 mice in the new object recognition test.
Discussion: Taken together, the present results suggest that RE plays a role in alleviating AD symptoms, and highlight the beneficial effects of RE training as a complementary treatment for AD.