One of the benefits of physical fitness and the physical activity required to sustain that fitness is a slower aging of the brain. Human data provides only correlational data, but animal studies have demonstrated causation in the improved health and slowed aspects of aging resulting from exercise. Researchers here delve into the biochemistry of aging in brain and body cells, finding a great deal more downregulation of gene expression in the brain than elsewhere in the body with aging, and that physical exercise can reduce the extent of those changes.
It is been noted that the expression levels of numerous genes undergo changes as individuals age, and aging stands as a primary factor contributing to age-related diseases. In this study, we screened for aging genes using RNAseq data of 32 human tissues from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. RNAseq datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were used to study whether aging genes drives age-related diseases, or whether anti-aging solutions could reverse aging gene expression.
Aging transcriptome alterations showed that brain aging differ significantly from the rest of the body, furthermore, brain tissues were divided into four group according to their aging transcriptome alterations. Numerous genes were downregulated during brain aging versus body tissue aging, with functions enriched in synaptic function, ubiquitination, mitochondrial translation, and autophagy.
Transcriptome analysis of age-related diseases and retarding aging solutions showed that downregulated aging genes in the hippocampus underwent further downregulation in Alzheimer's disease but this downregylation was effectively reversed by high physical activity. Furthermore, the neuron loss observed during aging was reversed by high physical activity.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2024.1450337
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