Epigenetic aging cognitive function and exercise in older adults

This federal Project Grant award of $2,358,537.00 from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) supports a research project titled "Epigenetic Aging, Cognitive Function and Exercise in Older Adults" at the University of Pittsburgh. The project aims to investigate the impact of exercise on epigenetic aging and its relationship to cognitive function, brain health, and Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in non-cognitively impaired older adults. The award period runs from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2027. This research builds upon data and biospecimens collected through the Investigating Gains in Neurocognition in an Intervention Trial of Exercise (IGNITE) project, involving 648 community-dwelling older adult participants aged 65-80 years. The overarching goal is to elucidate the biological underpinnings related to variability in cognitive function, brain health, and response to exercise, with a focus on understanding the role of epigenetic aging in these processes.

Abstract

In the united states, 1 in 9 individuals 65 and older and one third of individuals 85 and older have alzheimer's dementia (ad). By age 70, age-related cognitive decline is nearly ubiquitous with signs of mild cognitive impairment in a large portion of older adults. Exercise is a promising intervention to mitigate cognitive decline in older adults, however response to exercise varies. Epigenetic age, particularly accelerated epigenetic aging, has been linked to neurodegenerative disorders including ad, other types of dementia and cognitive aging. Understanding the impact of social determinants of health (sdoh) on epigenetic aging is gaining momentum with several studies implicating cumulative lifetime stress, lifestyle, early life adversity, and neighborhood context with epigenetic age acceleration. The impact of exercise on DNA methylation is well established and its impact on epigenetic aging is a burgeoning area of research. Elucidating biologic underpinnings related to variability in cognitive function (CF), brain health (BH), biomarkers of ad, and response to exercise are necessary to improve mitigation of age-related cognitive decline. The overarching hypothesis for this project is that heterogeneity of biological aging explains variation in CF, BH, biomarkers of ad, and response to exercise in non-cognitively impaired older adults. This project will be accomplished by harnessing the data and biospecimens collected through the investigating gains in neurocognition in an intervention trial of exercise (ignite) project. Participants (n=648) were 65-80 years old, community dwelling, not cognitively impaired individuals who exercised