A recent QBI study has confirmed that exercise promotes cognitive health and brain function. It may even help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), particularly in hippocampus, a brain region critical for memory. But how does physical activity create these powerful effects in the brain? Our research explores a surprising link that may lie ...
Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland
From gut to brain: Understanding the role that gut bacteria play in linking exercise to brain health in dementia
GOAL
$20,000
Australia > QLD > Metro and Regional
Field of Interest
- Health/wellbeing and medical research
Target Population
- People with a disability, illness or disease
- General population
Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland
QBI is the flagship neuroscience research institute at The University of Queensland (UQ) and a world leader in brain research, devoted to a fundamental understanding of how the brain works.
Established in 2003, when philanthropist Chuck Feeney, the Queensland Government and UQ joined forces to create a neuroscience research centre of excellence, QBI has grown from 20 research staff to an internationally renowned team of more than 300 staff and students. QBI scientists enjoy a global reputation for undertaking outstanding research as they make important advances in neuroscience. They are all focused on two of the greatest challenges of modern science: understanding brain function and the prevention and treatment of disorders of the brain.
In the past two decades, important advances in fundamental neuroscience have been made and these findings are being applied to the development of new therapeutic approaches to prevent and/or restore loss of function in diseases of the nervous system, such as Alzheimer’s and other dementias, stroke, motor neurone disease, concussion, schizophrenia, anxiety, and depression.
Our Vision - Improved lives through a deeper understanding of the brain in health and disease.
Our Mission - Unlocking the mysteries of the brain to generate new knowledge, understand learning and memory, and develop new technologies to improve lives, and diagnose and treat brain disease and improve mental health.
Project Summary
A recent QBI study has confirmed that exercise promotes cognitive health and brain function. It may even help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), particularly in hippocampus, a brain region critical for memory. But how does physical activity create these powerful effects in the brain? Our research explores a surprising link that may lie in the gut.
Our gut microbiome is host to an enormous number of various bacteria that communicate with the brain, referred to as the gut brain axis. Exercise and AD are known to change the bacterial composition in our gut, with positive and negative effects respectively to brain health and function. Bacterial extracellular vesicles (bEVs), tiny cargo packages that bud off from bacteria, can travel through the bloodstream to the brain to exert positive effects.
This project investigates whether bEVs are the missing link between exercise and improved brain health. We aim to uncover how exercise changes the gut microbiome and the bEVs it produces, how these changes affect Alzheimer’s-related damage in the brain, and whether bEVs produced during exercise can help reduce the brain damage and cognitive decline seen in AD.
By understanding how bEVs mediate the effects of exercise on the brain, we hope to identify new biomarkers and develop innovative therapies for AD, potentially using the body’s own bacteria to support brain function.
With millions of people affected by AD, this research could reshape how we think about exercise, gut health and brain disease.
Project Outcomes
Our goal is to develop a new treatment to improve the lives of people living with Alzheimer’s disease. The first aim of this project is to better understand the role of bEVs in mediating the positive effects of exercise on brain health and function in AD. We will analyse bacterial genomic material in the gut and blood to determine how exercise changes the bacterial composition in the gut microbiome and how this relates to circulating bEVs. We will then assess the molecular cargo of exercise-associated bEVs. With these approaches taken together, we can determine a “bacterial fingerprint” of the gut-brain axis in exercise, both in health and AD. We will use this information to establish biomarkers for AD and develop novel treatments or drugs by identifying the specific components of the gut-brain axis that are positively mediated by exercise.
Our second goal is to explore if exercise-associated bEVs can be isolated and used as a a potential treatment for AD. We will achieve this goal if isolated exercise-associated bEVs with the desired fingerprint can partially replicate the positive effects of exercise on brain damage and cognitive decline seen in AD.
The overall goal is to gain understanding of the role bEVs play in promoting the beneficial effects of exercise to the brain, and to use this newfound knowledge to develop biomarkers and novel therapeutic strategies for dementias like AD.
Budget Breakdown
TOTAL BUDGET: $50,000
FUNDING
| Funding source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Alastair Rushworth Research Endowment PhD award | $30,000 |
| Funding gap | $20,000 |
EXPENSES
| Expense item | Amount |
|---|---|
| 16S RNA sequencing | $25,000 |
| proteomic analysis | $15,000 |
| Histology & microscopy facility fees | $5,000 |
| Expenses miscellaneous reagents/consumables | $5,000 |
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