Physical exercise helps reducing brain deficit related to ageing
Physical exercise can help mitigate some brain deficits associated with age and ageing, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. The new study guarantees the positive impact of physical exercise in the long run to delay the start of physiological memory loss and decrease of peripheral levels of CTBS and BDNF. The article is signed by a team counting on the participation of UB experts David Bartres Faz and Elisabeth Solana, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, the Institute of Neurosciences (UBNeuro), and IDIBAPS, and Mercè Pallàs, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, UBNeuro and CIBERNED.
Physical exercise can help mitigate some brain deficits associated with age and ageing, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. The new study guarantees the positive impact of physical exercise in the long run to delay the start of physiological memory loss and decrease of peripheral levels of CTBS and BDNF. The article is signed by a team counting on the participation of UB experts David Bartres Faz and Elisabeth Solana, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, the Institute of Neurosciences (UBNeuro), and IDIBAPS, and Mercè Pallàs, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, UBNeuro and CIBERNED.
The new study, led by the experts Coral Sanfeliu (IIBB, CSIC, IDIBAPS and CIBERESP), and M. Carmen Gómez (University of Valencia and INCLIVA), carried out with the collaboration of the players from Club Rugbi Barcelona and veteran players from XV Matusalem Rugbi Sant Cugat and Kingʼs Pebrots (Associació de Veterans del Rugbi de Barcelona).
The new study assesses whether sports training on the long run -with an average of thirty-five years of practice- can delay the beginning of the physiological loss of memory and promote its maintenance over ageing. In particular, the study counted on a group of eighty-six sports players -aged from seventeen to sixty-eight-, and a group of middle-aged players, with a 5-year period of sports practise.
Physical exercise helps preventing memory loss
Studies in veteran sports players who played sports during the major part of their lives “bring a new perspective to understand the impact of long-run training in aspects like neuroprotection”, note researchers Coral Sanfeliu and M. Carmen Gómez.
The analysis of different biomarkers reveals physical exercise allows modulating different factors that take part in the molecular communication -between the skeletal muscle and the brain- through factors that are released into the circulatory system. Some of the involved factors -such as the enzyme cathepsin B (CTSB) and the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are related to neuronal survival.
The study suggests the effectiveness of exercise as a preventive strategy regarding memory loss related to ageing and neurodegeneration, in particular in pathologies -such as Alzheimerʼs disease- featured by the deteriorating of memory and other cognitive skills. Other significant changes were found in peripheral levels of BDNF and CTSB molecules in the group of sports players, both in young and middle-aged men. In this context, memory tests in the group of veteran players and the control population were led by the neuropsychologist David Bartrés Faz, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB, UBNeuro and IDIBAPS.
The new study was carried out with the support from research grants given by the Institute for Catalan Studies. Other participants in the study are José Viña and Adrián de la Rosa (Department of Physiology of the University of Valencia, INCLIVA and CIBERFES)