A little-studied liver protein may be responsible for the well-known benefits of exercise on the aging brain, according to a new study in mice by scientists.
The findings could lead to new therapies to confer the neuroprotective effects of physical activity on people who are unable to exercise due to physical limitations.
Exercise is one of the best-studied and most powerful ways of protecting the brain from age-related cognitive decline and has been shown to improve cognition in individuals at risk of neurodegenerative disease.
But many older adults are not able to exercise regularly due to physical limitations or disabilities, and researchers have long searched for therapies that could confer some of the same neurological benefits in people with low physical activity levels.
The new study, published July 9, 2020, in Science, showed that after mice exercise, their livers secrete a protein called Gpld1 into the blood. Levels of this protein in the blood correspond to improved cognitive function in aged mice, and a collaboration with the UCSF Memory and Aging Center found that the enzyme is also elevated in the blood of elderly humans who exercise regularly. But the researchers showed that simply increasing the amount of Gpld1 produced by the mouse liver could confer many of the same brain benefits as regular exercise.
This increases the production of GPLD1 in your liver and then it enters the blood stream to circulate throughout your body for help produce those beneficial effects.
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2020-09-25 17:58:04 +0000 UTCpseudonym
2020-09-25 17:57:56 +0000 UTCJamie Anderson
2020-08-05 04:31:50 +0000 UTCClara Magdalena
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2020-07-27 03:23:59 +0000 UTCMoritz Alexander
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