Exercise Could Blunt Alzheimer’s Disease

A new study from Harvard’s Mass General Hospital suggests how the exercise-induced hormone irisin is able to reduce brain levels of the amyloid deposits that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s dementia. Investigators at the hospital’s Genetics and Aging Unit studied the process in their own ground-breaking Alzheimer’s Disease model using a 3D cell human brain cell culture.

They discovered that the addition to the brain cells of the hormone irisin, normally produced in active muscles, boosts the astrocyte production of the enzyme neprilysin which, in turn, dissolves the chemical hallmark of Alzheimer’s, amyloid. Astrocytes are star-shaped cells with many functions including control of the blood-brain barrier and helping to repair the brain and spinal cord after trauma.

If these findings are confirmed in clinical settings, they could serve the basis for more effective Alzheimer’s Disease therapy. Meanwhile, it’s another reason to keep your body super-active at any stage of life.

https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(23)00623-2?_returnURL=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0896627323006232?showall=true

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