Exercise for Mental Longevity

Kinesiology professor Bradley Hatfield uses advanced brain imaging to study the benefits of exercise on the aging brain. Early results show that moderate physical activity may help maintain memory function longer—maybe even for years—in people who are genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s disease.

Memory-related structures are among the brain regions affected in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s. To see how well they’re functioning, Hatfield hooks seemingly healthy participants up to as many as 200 sensors and tracks the electrical and magnetic activity in their brains. Here, he explains the process and his findings.

Picture the Connection How it works: Physical activity results in the release of neurotrophins, factors that promote growth and repair of neural tissue in these regions. Computer-generated neuroimaging, including EEGs, MEGs and 3-D MRIs, provide a window to the brain that allows researchers to see if an individual’s brain activity patterns are positively affected by exercise. What he found: Physically active individuals who carry the gene that makes them more susceptible to Alzheimer’s (APOE e4) have brain activity during memory challenges that are similar to non-carriers who are at lower genetic risk of Alzheimer’s. This implies a protective effect of exercise on the brain. On the other hand, carriers of the gene who are sedentary show reduced brain activity in specific areas, which implies some degree of neurodegeneration.

Get Results A little goes a long way. It’s not well established at this time, but it seems that a moderate degree of physical activity, such as brisk walking three or more times per week, for 20 minutes or more per session, is sufficient. Go for cardio. Cardiovascular conditioning seems best to positively impact the brain, but weight training (resistance exercise) may be good for the brain, too, especially in the elderly. It stimulates growth hormone, which can nourish brain tissue.

Start Now Over 50 and sedentary? Get moving. Preliminary results suggest that it is not too late. In fact, middle age may provide a window of opportunity during which you could capitalize on the beneficial effects of exercise on the brain and delay decline—thus maintaining a higher quality of mental life. Benefits for all. Exercise will enhance brain tissue density and results in a “cognitive reserve.” This can help you cope with and compensate for any age-related or disease-related decline, delaying the onset of symptoms. This should apply to all forms of dementia—not just Alzheimer’s. —KM

Improving the Accuracy and Speed of Drug Development

A multidisciplinary research team combining faculty from the A. James Clark School of Engineering with scientists from the nearby University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute is looking to revolutionize the way companies develop and test new pharmaceutical drugs. The researchers plan to build small devices that can test new drugs using living, human proteins and cells rather than laboratory animals, significantly improving the accuracy and speed of drug development.

“The present testing system, involving mice and other animals, really doesn’t reflect the human body,” says principal investigator William Bentley, who is the Robert E. Fischell Distinguished Professor and chair of the Fischell Department of Bioengineering. “This leads to inaccurate results that require additional rounds of testing, dragging out the process for years.”

It currently takes about 10 years and $1 billion worth of research for a new pharmaceutical drug to be conceived, tested and approved for market.

The testing device being developed is about the size of an iPod, with team members knowledgeable in nanotechnology and micro fabrication techniques working to make the tool even smaller. The device lets scientists place both the drug to be tested and specific human biological components together, allowing for multiple, simultaneous measurements of how proteins or cells respond to the drug, which in turn can determine whether the drug is successful.

The researchers are working with a management board made up of representatives from leading pharmaceutical companies like sanofi pasteur, MedImmune and Bristol-Meyers Squibb. “They will help guide us so that we are addressing current industry needs,” Bentley says.

Funding for the research comes from a $2 million National Science Foundation grant that is part of the NSF’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation program. These grants specifically fund projects involving groups of researchers from at least three different fields, and who have a visionary plan to change the way people perform research.

The goal of the innovation program, according to the NSF, is to encourage researchers to transform the way engineering addresses critical societal problems. —TV

Growing Maryland’s Fruitful Wine Industry

Joe Fiola, Maryland Cooperative Extension specialist in viticulture and small fruits, has helped move the wine industry into 15 Maryland counties.

Joe Fiola, viticulture and small fruit specialist at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center, has a strange introduction to his beginners’ grape growing workshops.

“My object here is to scare most of you away from doing this,” he tells would-be vintners who flock to his presentations. If you don’t want to be a farmer, don’t get into grape production, explains the viticulturist with almost 20 years of experience. Growing grapes is intensive small fruit farming; amateur growers need to understand there’s nothing romantic about mid-winter pruning or mid-summer vine training.

With Fiola’s help, the 28 licensed wineries in Maryland—up from 11 in 2002—like well-trained vines, might just make it. Fiola’s viticulture and enology program concentrates on variety and clonal testing he conducts on the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ four vineyards. Fiola’s goal is to develop variety recommendations—like those from southern Italy, France and Spain, and even Eastern Europe—best suited to a vineyard locale. Wine production in the state increases an average of 15 to 20 percent each year, and Maryland wines—numbering more than 225 different varieties—consistently win gold medals at national and international wine competitions.

Fiola’s own wines have moved him into the top 20 all-time award winners in the American Wine Society’s national wine amateur competition. Fiola’s Linae, a vine existing nowhere else in the world, garnered the vintner a Best in Show in 2003. Boordy Vineyards, located in Baltimore County, has since requested an acre of the vine from Fiola who hopes to patent it.

On the horizon for the burgeoning Maryland wine industry?

“Farmers need to take advantage of the interest in wine and work with apples, which are much less expensive to grow than grapes,” Fiola says. The northern tier counties are well suited to grow this hardy fruit. This is not your grocery store cider turned hard. Apple wines can have a bouquet similar to a dry chardonnay, Fiola says. He also creates Madeira-style wines and products similar to ice wine and ice-port wine from apples.

“Since I do so many fermentations each year, sometimes one gets away without getting the proper attention and oxidizes or turns to vinegar,” he says.

But the wine industry, stoked by Fiola’s research efforts at Maryland, promises to remain sweet. —RR

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