Regular exercise could help prevent brain damage associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, according to research published this month in Elsevier’s journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

“Exercise allows the brain to rapidly produce chemicals that prevent damaging inflammation”, said Professor Jean Harry, who led the study at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the United States. “This could help us develop a therapeutic approach for early intervention in preventing damage to the brain.”

Previous research has already demonstrated that exercise after brain injury can help the repair mechanisms. This new study shows that exercise before the onset of damage modifies the brain environment in such a way that the neurons are protected from severe insults. The study used an experimental model of brain damage, in which mice are exposed to a chemical that destroys the hippocampus, an area of the brain which controls learning and memory. Mice that were exercised regularly prior to exposure produced an immune messenger called interleukin-6 in the brain, which dampens the harmful inflammatory response to this damage, and prevents the loss of function that is usually observed.

Pharmacological therapies to downregulate inflammation and address cognitive decline in older adults, and those with Alzheimer’s disease, have been less successful. This research helps understand how exercise could be used to affect the path of many human conditions, such as neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, as a chemical model of neuronal damage was used, it also raises the possibility that exercise could offer protection against the potentially harmful effects of environmental toxins.

“This elegant series of experiments reveals an alternative pathway by which voluntary physical exercise may protect hippocampal neurons”, said Dr. Ruth Barrientos from the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado. “The study on the role of exercise as a therapeutic intervention will undoubtedly get a workout in the years to come. Perhaps the greatest challenge with this line of research will not be more discoveries of compelling evidence of the anti-neuroinflammatory effects of exercise, but instead, getting humans to exercise voluntarily and regularly.”

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The research was funded by the Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the National Institutes of Health.

Notes to editors

The article is “Voluntary exercise protects hippocampal neurons from trimethyltin injury: Possible role of interleukin-6 to modulate tumor necrosis factor receptor-mediated neurotoxicity” by Jason A. Funk, Julia Gohlke, Andrew D. Kraft, Christopher A. McPherson and Jennifer B. Collins. The article appears in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Volume 25, Number 6 (August 2011), published by Elsevier.

About Brain, Behavior, and Immunity

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, founded in 1987, is the official journal of the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society (PNIRS). This innovative journal publishes peer-reviewed basic, experimental, and clinical studies dealing with behavioral, neural, endocrine, and immune system interactions in humans and animals. It is an international, interdisciplinary journal devoted to investigation of the physiological systems that integrate behavioral and immunological responses. The journal welcomes original research in neuroscience, immunology, integrative physiology, behavioral biology, psychiatry, psychology, and clinical medicine and is inclusive of research at the molecular, cellular, social, and organismic levels. The journal features online submission and review, leading to timely publication of experimental results. There are no submission fees or page charges for Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, which is published eight times a year.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier’s online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai’s Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

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