Treadmill exercise alleviates brain iron dyshomeostasis accelerating neuronal amyloid‐β production, neuronal cell death and cognitive impairment in transgenic mice model of Alzheimer’s disease

Brain iron increases with age and brain iron dyshomeostasis is proving increasingly likely to be involved in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD), possibly via promoting oxidative damage. There is therefore an urgent need to research into improving role iron play in AD. Sustained exercise may be ways to slow the rate of overload of iron, by perhaps alleviating oxidative stress due to the Fenton reaction. Yet, the exact mechanisms of the effects of exercise on iron toxicity are not well understood. Here, we explored whether treadmill exercise impacts the AD‐related mechanism(s) of brain iron status in vivo, using APP‐C105 AD‐model mice. We observed iron‐induced disruptions of amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing, neuronal apoptotic signaling, oxidative stress, and cognitive impairment in APP‐C105 AD‐model mice. Further, brain iron dyshomeostasis associated with Aβ‐induced neuronal cell death possibly via APP misprocessing, and oxidative stress and cognitive decline was blocked by treadmill exercise, suggesting effect led to mitigated Aβ‐induced neuronal cell death and cognitive decline by promoting non‐amyloidogenic pathway possibly via enhanced furin, concomitant with inhibiting oxidative stress possibly via down‐regulating brain iron dyshomeostasis. Together, we show evidences to suggest that treadmill exercise may be ways to inhibit Aβ‐induced neuronal cell death by up‐regulating non‐amyloidogenic pathway through enhanced furin, concomitant with down‐regulating iron‐mediated oxidative stress.