The Association Between Alzheimer's Disease-Related Markers and Physical Activity in Cognitively Normal Older Adults

Steve Pedrini; Pratishtha Chatterjee; Akinori Nakamura; Michelle Tegg; Eugene Hone; Stephanie R Rainey-Smith; Christopher C Rowe; Vincent Dore; Victor L Villemagne; David Ames; Naoki Kaneko; Sam L Gardener; Kevin Taddei; Binosha Fernando; Ian Martins; Prashant Bharadwaj; Hamid R Sohrabi; Colin L Masters; Belinda Brown; Ralph N Martins

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2022.771214

The Association Between Alzheimer's Disease-Related Markers and Physical Activity in Cognitively Normal Older Adults

Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Mar 28:14:771214. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.771214. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Steve Pedrini¹, Pratishtha Chatterjee^{1

2}, Akinori Nakamura³, Michelle Tegg¹, Eugene Hone¹, Stephanie R Rainey-Smith^{1

4}, Christopher C Rowe⁵, Vincent Dore⁵, Victor L Villemagne⁶, David Ames^{7

8}, Naoki Kaneko⁹, Sam L Gardener¹, Kevin Taddei¹, Binosha Fernando¹, Ian Martins¹, Prashant Bharadwaj¹, Hamid R Sohrabi⁴, Colin L Masters¹⁰, Belinda Brown^{1

4}, Ralph N Martins^{1

2

11}

Affiliations

¹ School of Medical Sciences, Sarich Neuroscience Research Institute, Edith Cowan University, Nedlands, WA, Australia.
² Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ Center for Development of Advanced Medicine for Dementia, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Japan.
⁴ Centre for Healthy Ageing, Health Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia.
⁵ Department of Nuclear Medicine and Centre for PET, Austin Health, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
⁷ National Ageing Research Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
⁸ Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age, St George's Hospital, University of Melbourne, Kew, VIC, Australia.
⁹ Koichi Tanaka Mass Spectrometry Research Laboratory, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan.
¹⁰ The Florey Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
¹¹ School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia.

Abstract

Previous studies have indicated that physical activity may be beneficial in reducing the risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD), although the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. The goal of this study was to evaluate the relationship between habitual physical activity levels and brain amyloid deposition and AD-related blood biomarkers (i.e., measured using a novel high-performance mass spectrometry-based assay), in apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 carriers and noncarriers. We evaluated 143 cognitively normal older adults, all of whom had brain amyloid deposition assessed using positron emission tomography and had their physical activity levels measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). We observed an inverse correlation between brain amyloidosis and plasma beta-amyloid (Aβ)_1-42 but found no association between brain amyloid and plasma Aβ_1-40 and amyloid precursor protein (APP)_669-711. Additionally, higher levels of physical activity were associated with lower plasma Aβ_1-40, Aβ_1-42, and APP_669-711 levels in APOE ε4 noncarriers. The ratios of Aβ_1-40/Aβ_1-42 and APP_669-711/Aβ_1-42, which have been associated with higher brain amyloidosis in previous studies, differed between APOE ε4 carriers and non-carriers. Taken together, these data indicate a complex relationship between physical activity and brain amyloid deposition and potential blood-based AD biomarkers in cognitively normal older adults. In addition, the role of APOE ε4 is still unclear, and more studies are necessary to bring further clarification.

Keywords: APOE genotype; Alzheimer's disease; amyloid; biomarkers; physical activity.