Researchers from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have concluded a study which demonstrates that regular exercise modifies the brain environment, and could help prevent damage associated with diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Previous studies have demonstrated that post brain injury exercise had positive effects on the repair mechanisms of the brain. This new study however, points to the benefits of exercise before the onset of damage to modify the brain environment, and protect neurons from severe injury.

The researchers used an experimental model of brain damage, in which mice are exposed to a chemical that destroys the hippocampus, an area of the brain which controls learning and memory. The team found that mice that were exercised regularly prior to exposure, produced an immune messenger called interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the brain. IL-6 is an interleukin that acts as both a pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine, and seems to prevent the loss of function in the brains that was observed in the non-exercised mice.

"Exercise allows the brain to rapidly produce chemicals that prevent damaging inflammation", said Professor Jean Harry, who led the study at NIEHS. "This could help us develop a therapeutic approach for early intervention in preventing damage to the brain."

Traditional drug therapies to address inflammation in the brain, and slow the cognitive decline in older adults, and those with Alzheimer's disease, have been less than successful. This new research helps shed light on how exercise could be used to affect the path of many human conditions, such as neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, as a chemical model of neuronal damage was used, it also raises the possibility that exercise could offer protection against the potentially harmful effects of environmental toxins.

However, as Dr. Ruth Barrientos from the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado confessed, "... perhaps the greatest challenge with this line of research will not be more discoveries of compelling evidence of the anti-neuroinflammatory effects of exercise, but instead, getting humans to exercise voluntarily and regularly."

Abstract: “Voluntary exercise protects hippocampal neurons from trimethyltin injury: Possible role of interleukin-6 to modulate tumor necrosis factor receptor-mediated neurotoxicity” by Jason A. Funk , Julia Gohlke, Andrew D. Kraft, Christopher A. McPherson and Jennifer B. Collins.

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