Exercise Training Reduces the Inflammatory Response and Promotes Intestinal Mucosa-Associated Immunity in Lynch Syndrome

Abstract

Purpose: Lynch Syndrome (LS) is a hereditary condition with a high lifetime risk of colorectal and endometrial cancers. Exercise is a non-pharmacological intervention to reduce cancer risk, though its impact on patients with LS has not been prospectively studied. Here, we evaluated the impact of a 12-month aerobic exercise cycling intervention in the biology of the immune system in LS carriers. Experimental Design: To address this, we enrolled 21 LS patients onto a non-randomized, sequential intervention assignation, clinical trial to assess the effect of a 12-month exercise program that included cycling classes thrice weekly for 45 minutes versus usual care with a one-time exercise counseling session as control. We analyzed the effects of exercise on cardiorespiratory fitness, circulating, and colorectal-tissue biomarkers using metabolomics, gene expression by bulk mRNAseq, and spatial transcriptomics by NanoString GeoMx. Results: We observed a significant increase in oxygen consumption (VO2peak) as a primary outcome of the exercise and a decrease in inflammatory markers (Prostaglandin E) in colon and blood as the secondary outcomes in the exercise versus usual care group. Gene expression profiling and spatial transcriptomics on available colon biopsies revealed an increase in the colonic mucosa levels of NK and CD8+ T cells in the exercise group that were further confirmed by immunohistochemical studies. Conclusions: Together these data have important implications for cancer interception in LS, and document for the first-time biological effects of exercise in the immune system of a target organ in patients at-risk for cancer.

Immunotherapy: remember the host

“…Exercise can enhance anti-tumor immunity. Natural killer and CD8 + cytotoxic T-cells expand, and immune suppressive myeloid-derived suppressor cells are reduced with exercise ( 17 - 19 ). Murine models have also shown that aerobic exercise and IL-15 activation will sensitize pancreatic tumor to IO treatment ( 20 ).…”