Extracellular vesicles contribute to the beneficial metabolic effects of voluntary exercise training in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline and memory loss. It has been suggested that alterations in energy metabolism, specifically an increase in resting energy expenditure (REE), may be a key factor in the development and progression of AD. Regular physical activity may improve cognitive function in patients with AD, and although the mechanisms are unclear, organ-to-organ communication may play a role. We hypothesize that changes to extracellular vesicles (EVs) in response to regular physical activity might be involved in organ-to-organ communication mediating the improvement to cognitive function caused by regular physical activity in patients with AD. In this experiment, we profiled the microRNA composition of extracellular vesicles (EVs) purified from the blood of sedentary (sedEV) and/or acutely exercised (exEV) mice as part of understanding this hypothesis. Overall design: Wild type mice were placed into two groups: exercise and sedentary. After three days of acclimation, exercise mice underwent 60-minutes of treadmill exercise to exhaustion. After exercise, blood was collected for plasma extraction from exercise mice with blood also being collected from control sedentary mice. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) were isolated from pooled plasma (from 20 mice in each group). RNA was extracted for EV-rich fractions and small RNA-seq was performed.