Background
An active lifestyle is associated with improved cognitive functions in aged people and may prevent or slow down the progression of various neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To investigate these protective effects, male APPNL-G-F mice were exposed to long-term voluntary exercise.
Methods
Three-month-old AD mice were housed in a cage supplemented with a running wheel for 9 months for long-term exercise. At the age of 12 months, behavioral tests were completed for all groups. After completing behavioral testing, their brains were assessed for amyloid pathology, microgliosis, and cholinergic cells.
Results
The results showed that APPNL-G-F mice allowed to voluntarily exercise showed an improvement in cognitive functions. Furthermore, long-term exercise also improved anxiety in APPNL-G-F mice as assessed by measuring thigmotaxis in the Morris water task. We also found reductions in amyloid load and microgliosis, and a preservation of cholinergic cells in the brain of APPNL-G-F mice allowed to exercise in their home cages. These profound reductions in brain pathology associated with AD are likely responsible for the observed improvement of learning and memory functions following extensive and regular exercise.
Conclusion
These findings suggest the potential of physical exercise to mitigate the cognitive deficits in AD.
Concerns are growing that exposure to environmental pollutants, such as traffic noise, might cause cognitive impairments and predispose individuals toward the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia. In this study in a knock‐in mouse model of AD, we investigated how chronic traffic noise exposure (CTNE) impacts cognitive performance and amyloid‐beta (Aβ) pathology. A group of APPNL‐G‐F/NL‐G‐F mice was exposed to CTNE (70 dBA, 8 hr/day for 1 month) and compared with nonexposed counterparts. Following CTNE, an increase in hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis responsivity was observed by corticosterone assay of the blood. One month after CTNE, the CTNE group demonstrated impairments in cognitive and motor functions, and indications of anxiety‐like behavior, relative to the control animals. The noise‐exposed group also showed elevated Aβ aggregation, as inferred by a greater number of plaques and larger average plaque size in various regions of the brain, including regions involved in stress regulation. The results support that noise‐associated dysregulation of the neuroendocrine system as a potential risk factor for developing cognitive impairment and Aβ pathology, which should be further investigated in human studies.
Alzheimer Disease (AD) is associated with cerebral plaques and tangles, reduced synapse number, and shrinkage in several brain areas and these morphological effects are associated with the onset of compromised cognitive, motor, and anxiety-like behaviours. The focus of this study was to examine the effect of neonatal tactile stimulation on AD-like behavioural and neurological symptoms on APP NL-G-F/NL-G-F mice, a mouse model of AD. Our findings indicate that neonatal tactile stimulation improves cognition, motor skills, and anxiety-like symptoms in both offspring of stressed (dams exposed to gestational noise stress) and non-stressed APP mice and that these alterations are associated with reduced Aβ plaque formation. Thus, tactile stimulation appears to be a promising non-invasive preventative strategy for slowing the onset of dementia in aging animals.
Alzheimer Disease (AD) is one of the largest health crises in the world. There are, however, limited but expensive pharmaceutical interventions to treat AD and most of the treatment options are not for cure or prevention, but to slow down the progression of the disease. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of tactile stimulation on AD-like symptoms and pathology in APPNL-G-F/NL-G-F mice, a mouse model of AD. The results show that tactile stimulation improves the AD-like symptoms on tests of cognition, motor, and anxiety-like behaviours and these improvements are associated with reduced AD pathology in APP mice.
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