Behavioral and neuronal interactions between exercise and alcohol: Sex and genetic differences

Abstract

Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) lead to early death and many devastating consequences for individuals, families and society. Currently, few effective treatments are available, but emerging research suggests exercise might be beneficial in some individuals. To develop the most effective exercise treatment program, more research on intensity, type, timing, stage of addiction, drug involved, sex of subject and subject population is needed. This review highlights the complexity of the interaction between alcohol behaviors and exercise, with a focus on the role of sex and genetics. Moreover, we describe a variety of rodent models used to investigate the neuronal physiology changes that underlie alcohol consumption and exercise. Specifically, current data indicate that moderate exercise may ameliorate neuronal damage caused by alcohol consumption. Additionally, we describe studies of rodent models in the context of hedonic substitution to draw broad conclusions about shared underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Until recently, most studies in rodents were performed only in males, and few studies have utilized different genetic strains of mice or rats. Comparing similar behavioral paradigms across sex and strain, it has become clear that major sex and genetic differences exist for each behavioral context alone (alcohol consumption and exercise) and combined. Therefore, future research in this area should be developed with careful study design and attention to address both of these factors.

Does an acute bout of moderate exercise reduce alcohol craving in university students?

“…Recent research centred around neuroimaging studies suggest that similar reward circuits in the brain stimulated through exercise are also found to be activated by commonly misused substances (Lynch et al, 2013). This was also the case in the aforementioned review by Booher et al (2020) who proposed exercise may replicate activation of the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward system in the same way that alcohol does. This affective response to exercise may be as a result of increased peripheral levels of monoamines including dopamine (Meeusen et al, 2001), norepinephrine, and serotonin (Basso & Suzuki, 2017), as well as the release of endorphins, that would otherwise be artificially stimulated using alcohol.…”

“…However, there is little known about the potential moderators and resolutions of alcohol craving, and few interventions that specifically target these . A recent review by Booher et al (2020) examined the positive effects of exercise on pathological consequences as a result of alcohol consumption, including behavioral and neurophysiological effects using rats, mice, and hamsters.…”

The impact of intermittent exercise on mouse ethanol drinking and abstinence‐associated affective behavior and physiology

“…Voluntary wheel running generally produces reductions in alcohol intake (Booher et al, 2020;Darlington et al, 2014;Gallego et al, 2015;McGonigle et al, 2016), although increases have also been reported (Lynch et al, 2019). In addition, withdrawal-associated seizures (Devaud et al, 2012;McCulley et al, 2012) and negative affective behavior (Pang et al, 2013a(Pang et al, , 2013b(Pang et al, , 2019 have been observed.…”

Sex differences in mechanisms of disease

“…In a thoughtful review of both clinical and preclinical evidence, Datta et al argue that parallel genomic studies in human and model organisms represent a promising investigative strategy toward this end. Finally, a review by Booher et al explores the current literature on exercise as an ameliorative agent in animal models of alcohol use disorder. Although the vast majority of this work has been carried out only in male mice and rats, the studies that were conducted on both sexes suggest that exercise may be even more beneficial to females than it is in males.…”