PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Belinda M. Brown
AU  - Natalie Castalanelli
AU  - Stephanie R. Rainey-Smith
AU  - James Doecke
AU  - Michael Weinborn
AU  - Hamid R. Sohrabi
AU  - Simon M. Laws
AU  - Ralph N Martins
AU  - Jeremiah J Peiffer
TI  - <em>BDNF Val66Met</em> moderates the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and memory in cognitively normal older adults
AID  - 10.1101/408955
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 408955
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/09/06/408955.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/09/06/408955.full
AB  - Higher cardiorespiratory fitness has been associated with enhanced cognitive function in older adults; yet, this relationship demonstrates a degree of variability. Thus, it is hypothesised that variation in genetic factors may influence the relationship between fitness and cognitive health. In this study we evaluate whether the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism moderates the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and verbal and visuospatial memory. Data from ninety-nine cognitively normal men and women aged 60 – 80 years were used. Fitness was assessed by peak oxygen consumption, and verbal and visuospatial memory were evaluated using well-validated measures. Participants were categorised into: lower-fit Met carriers, higher-fit Met carriers, lower-fit Val/Val, or higher-fit Val/Val. A significant interaction was observed between BDNF Val66Met and fitness on visuospatial memory performance; whereby lower-fit Met carriers performed 1SD lower than higher-fit Met carriers (p=0.04). We observed higher levels of fitness mitigated the deleterious effect of BDNF Met allele carriage on visuospatial memory. Future intervention studies should evaluate the effect of structured exercise on cognitive health between BDNF Val66Met carriers and Val/Val homozygotes.