Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden.
Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jun 9;13(1):9418. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-35847-5.
The interplay between biomarkers of relevance to neuroplasticity and its association with learning and cognitive ability in old age remains poorly understood. The present study investigated acute changes in plasma concentrations of mature brain-derived neurotrophic factor (mBDNF), its precursor protein (pro-BDNF), and cortisol, in response to acute physical exercise and cognitive training interventions, their covariation and role in predicting cognitive performance. Confirmatory results provided no support for mBDNF, pro-BDNF and cortisol co-varying over time, as the acute interventions unfolded, but did confirm a positive association between mBDNF and pro-BDNF at rest. The confirmatory results did not support the hypothesis that mBDNF change following physical exercise were counteracted by temporally coupled changes in cortisol or pro-BDNF, or by cortisol at rest, in its previously demonstrated faciliatory effect on cognitive training outcome. Exploratory results instead provided indications of a general and trait-like cognitive benefit of exhibiting greater mBDNF responsiveness to acute interventions when coupled with lesser cortisol responsiveness, greater pro-BDNF responsiveness, and lower cortisol at rest. As such, the results call for future work to test whether certain biomarker profiles are associated with preserved cognition in old age.
神经可塑性相关生物标志物的相互作用及其与老年学习和认知能力的关系仍知之甚少。本研究调查了急性身体运动和认知训练干预后，血浆中成熟脑源性神经营养因子（mBDNF）、其前体蛋白（pro-BDNF）和皮质醇浓度的急性变化，以及它们的相互关系及其在预测认知表现中的作用。验证结果不支持 mBDNF、pro-BDNF 和皮质醇在急性干预过程中随时间变化的共变，而是在静息状态下证实了 mBDNF 和 pro-BDNF 之间的正相关关系。验证结果不支持以下假设：即皮质醇或 pro-BDNF 的时间耦合变化或静息时的皮质醇会抵消运动后 mBDNF 的变化，因为皮质醇以前曾被证明对认知训练结果具有促进作用。探索性结果反而表明，当与较低的皮质醇反应性、较高的 pro-BDNF 反应性和较低的静息皮质醇相结合时，对急性干预表现出更大的 mBDNF 反应性与一般和特质样认知益处有关。因此，这些结果呼吁未来的工作来测试某些生物标志物特征是否与老年时认知功能的保留有关。
