08/08/2025
A new study has revealed how exercise can actually rewire the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, offering hope for better ways to protect memory and slow down this devastating disease. While it’s long been clear that staying active is good for the brain, researchers didn’t fully understand which brain cells were most affected by exercise or how it worked at a microscopic level. Now, using advanced single-cell genetic tools, scientists have mapped exactly how different brain cells respond to exercise in Alzheimer’s.
In experiments with mice prone to developing Alzheimer’s, researchers gave them running wheels. These active mice performed better on memory tasks than their sedentary peers. When researchers zoomed in on their brains using single-nuclei RNA sequencing, they found exercise changed gene activity in microglia (immune cells in the brain linked to Alzheimer’s) and in a newly discovered type of cell called neurovascular astrocytes that sit near blood vessels. Exercise even boosted a gene called Atpif1, which seems to help create new neurons.
Importantly, the scientists confirmed that the same gene patterns they saw in exercised mice also showed up in brain tissue from people with Alzheimer’s, adding weight to their findings. This research doesn’t just explain why exercise helps—it also points to specific cell types and genes that might be targeted with future drugs to fight Alzheimer’s. In short, it’s more evidence that moving your body can protect your brain, even at the cellular level, and might eventually inspire new treatments that mimic the effects of exercise for those who can’t get moving on their own.
Research Paper 📄
da Rocha, J.F., Lance, M.L., Luo, R. et al.
Protective exercise responses in the dentate gyrus of Alzheimer’s disease mouse model revealed with single-nucleus RNA-sequencing.
Nat Neurosci (2025).
DOI : 10.1038/s41593-025-01971-w
PMID: 40506544