NIH blog on exercise and brain health

[bobby]

any time I see the words 'We all know that exercise is important for a strong and healthy body', I get nervous... but this blog (by Francis Collins) is interesting. It talks about how the muscles secrete a certain protein that crosses the blood brain barrier and helps to make our brain better. that sounds like another thing possibly going wrong in PWME's bodies, doesn't it? Anyway, interesting read!

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2016/06/28/exercise-releases-brain-healthy-protein/

Researchers have assembled a growing body of evidence that suggests skeletal muscle cells secrete proteins and other factors into the blood during exercise that have a regenerative effect on the brain.

Now, an NIH-supported study has identified a new biochemical candidate to help explore the muscle-brain connection: a protein secreted by skeletal muscle cells called cathepsin B. The study found that levels of this protein rise in the blood of people who exercise regularly, in this case running on a treadmill. In mice, brain cells treated with the protein also exhibited molecular changes associated with the production of new neurons. Interestingly, the researchers found that the memory boost normally provided by exercise is diminished in mice unable to produce cathepsin B.

 

[Cort]

any time I see the words 'We all know that exercise is important for a strong and healthy body', I get nervous... but this blog (by Francis Collins) is interesting. It talks about how the muscles secrete a certain protein that crosses the blood brain barrier and helps to make our brain better. that sounds like another thing possibly going wrong in PWME's bodies, doesn't it? Anyway, interesting read!

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2016/06/28/exercise-releases-brain-healthy-protein/

Cathepsin B has shown up in ME/CFS before...It showed up in a early study of 1 comparing the gene expression between a person with ME/CFS and a healthy control before and after exercise. Before exercise it was increased in ME/CFS but as the Collins blog makes clear this is a tricky compound.

We used differential-display PCR of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to search for candidate biomarkers for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). PBMCs were collected from a subject with CFS and an age- and sex-matched control before and 24 h after exercise.

Most (86%) of the differences between the two subjects were present at baseline. Differential expression of ten genes was verified by real-time reverse-transcription PCR: five (cystatin F, MHC class II, platelet factor 4, fetal brain expressed sequence tag, and perforin) were downregulated, and the remaining five genes (cathepsin B, DNA polymerase epsilon4, novel EST PBMC191MSt, heparanase precursor, and ORF2/L1 element) were upregulated in the subject with CFS.

Cathepsin B has a dark side as well. Why it should be being produced in people with ME/CFS who are not exercising might be a little scary/

These discoveries on cathepsin B come as something of a surprise. Elevated levels of the enzyme have previously been linked to a wide array of diseases, from cancer to epilepsy. There’s also conflicting evidence about a potential role for cathepsin B in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, and drugs that block the enzyme have been proposed to treat traumatic brain injury, among many other conditions [5].