Gene–exercise interaction on brain health in children with overweight/obesity : the ActiveBrains randomized controlled trial
Abstract
We investigated the interaction between a genetic score and an exercise intervention on brain health in children with over-weight/obesity. One hundred one children with overweight/obesity (10.0 ± 1.5 yr, 59% girls) were randomized into a 20-wkcombined exercise intervention or a control group. Several cognitive and academic outcomes were measured with validated tests. Hippocampal volume was quantified using magnetic resonance imaging. Six brain health-related polymorphisms [rs6265(BDNF), rs2253206 (CREB1), rs2289656 (NTRK2), rs4680 (COMT), rs429358, and rs7412 (APOE)] were genotyped. Cognitive flexibility and academic skills improved significantly more in the exercise than in the control group only in the children with a “favorable” genetic profile [meanz-score, 0.41–0.67 (95% CI 0.11 to 1.18)], yet not in those with “less favorable” genetic profile. An individual response analysis showed that children responded to exercise in cognitive flexibility only in the “genetically favorable” group [i.e., 62% of them had a meaningful ( 0.2 Cohend) increase in the exercise group compared with only 25%in the control group]. This finding was consistent in per-protocol and intention-to-treat analyses (P¼0.01 andP¼0.03, respectively). The results were not significant or not consistent for the rest of outcomes studied. Our findings suggest that having a more favorable genetic profile makes children with overweight/obesity more responsive to exercise, particularly for cognitive flexibility.
Main Authors
Format
Articles
Research article
Published
2023
Series
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
American Physiological Society
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202311137929Use this for linking
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
8750-7587
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00435.2023
Language
English
Published in
Journal of Applied Physiology
Citation
- Plaza-Florido, A., Esteban-Cornejo, I., Mora-Gonzalez, J., Torres-Lopez, L., Osuna-Prieto, F., Gil-Cosano, J., Radom-Aizik, S., Labayen, I., Ruiz, J., Altmäe, S., & Ortega, F. (2023). Gene–exercise interaction on brain health in children with overweight/obesity : the ActiveBrains randomized controlled trial. Journal of Applied Physiology, 135, 775-785. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00435.2023
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Additional information about funding
The project was mainly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Reference DEP2013-47540,DEP2016-79512-R, and DEP2017-91544-EXP) and by the Andalusian Operational Programme supported with European Regional Development Funds (ERDF in English, FEDER in Spanish, projects ref: B-CTS-355-UGR18 and A-CTS-614-UGR20) and Junta de Andalucia (P20_00158). Grant Endo-Map PID2021-12728OB-100funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and ERFD A way of making Europe; Grant RYC-2016-21199, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ESF Investing in your future. This study was supported in part by the Pediatric Exercise and Genomics Research Center (PERC) Systems Biology Fund. A.P.-F. is supported in part by NIH Grant No.: U01 TR002004 (REACH project). I.E.-C. is supported by the Spanish Ministries of Economy and Competitiveness (RTI2018-095284-J-100), and Science and Innovation (RYC2019-027287-I). F.J.O.-P. is supported by Margarita Salas program (Programa de recualificaci on del profesorado Universitario, Ministerio de Universidades). Additional support was obtained from the Unit of Excellence on EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health (DEP2005- 00046/ACTI; 09/UPB/19; 45/UPB/20; 27/UPB/21); Alicia Koplowitz Foundation. This study has been partially funded by the University of Granada, Plan Propiode Investigacion 2016, Excellence actions: Units of Excellence; Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES), and by the Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Conocimiento, Investigaciony Universidades and European Regional Development Fund(ERDF), ref. SOMM17/6107/UGR.
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