% IMPORTANT: The following is UTF-8 encoded.  This means that in the presence
% of non-ASCII characters, it will not work with BibTeX 0.99 or older.
% Instead, you should use an up-to-date BibTeX implementation like “bibtex8” or
% “biber”.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Schwarck:283088,
      author       = {Schwarck, Svenja and Behrenbruch, Niklas and
                      Schumann-Werner, Beate and Vockert, Niklas and Müller,
                      Patrick and Moyano, Jose Bernal and Duarte, Roberto and
                      Hernandez, Maria del C. Valdes and Wardlaw, Joanna M and
                      Garcia-Garcia, Berta and Fischer, Larissa and Molloy, Eóin
                      N. and Hochkeppler, Anne and Incesoy, Enise I and Rullmann,
                      Michael and Stephens, Andrew W. and Patt, Marianne and
                      Barthel, Henryk and Schildan, Andreas and Marcos Morgado,
                      Barbara and Esselmann, Hermann and Wiltfang, Jens and Sabri,
                      Osama and Kreißl, Michael and Düzel, Emrah and Maass,
                      Anne},
      title        = {{R}ole of physical fitness in resistance and cognitive
                      resilience against age‐related pathology},
      journal      = {Alzheimer's and dementia},
      volume       = {21},
      number       = {S6},
      issn         = {1552-5260},
      reportid     = {DZNE-2025-01495},
      pages        = {e099453},
      year         = {2025},
      abstract     = {Background:Cognitive reserve (CR) and brain maintenance
                      enable the brain to maintain performance despite injury and
                      disease while also reducing neural decline by safeguarding
                      brain structure and function. Physical activity is a
                      potential pathway to BM and CR, as fitness relates to better
                      cognition in older adults, though the underlying mechanisms
                      remain unclear. To explore the role of physical fitness in
                      BM and CR, we tested its association with brain pathology
                      and its potential moderation of pathology's impact on
                      cognitive performance.Method:We collected data from 167
                      cognitively unimpaired participants (mean age 71.57±7.50
                      years; 70 females) of the ongoing SFB1436 study
                      (www.sfb1435.de; Figure 1). We collected many markers,
                      including global and verbal cognitive performance; aerobic
                      (VO2max) and muscular capacity; blood-based biomarkers of
                      Alzheimer's disease (plasma Aβ1-42/1-40, ptau217) and
                      plasticity (serum BDNF, VEGF and Cathepsin-B); PET-derived
                      medial temporal lobe tau burden (MTL DVR, 18F-PI-2620 PET);
                      and MRI-derived volumes of hippocampi, white matter
                      hyperintensities, and perivascular spaces (PVS) in the basal
                      ganglia (BG) and centrum semiovale regions. The tests were
                      two-fold. We first tested whether fitness was associated
                      with lower MTL DVR values, reduced MRI-derived volumes of
                      brain pathology, and better cognition. Using moderation
                      analysis, we then tested whether physical fitness moderated
                      the relationship between pathology and cognition. We relied
                      on ANOVA for model comparison. We adjusted models for age
                      and sex and FDR-corrected multiple
                      comparisons.Result:Participants with better aerobic capacity
                      (VO2max) had lower BG-PVS volumes (Figure 2a) and better
                      global cognitive performance. Those with higher MTL tau
                      burden had worse verbal memory (Figure 2b). We found no
                      evidence of a relationship between physical fitness and
                      Alzheimer's markers, plasticity-related markers, or
                      hippocampal volume. Moderation analysis revealed that
                      physical fitness did not moderate the relationship between
                      MTL tau burden and verbal memory, but model comparison
                      revealed weak evidence for CR against MTL tau.Conclusion:We
                      demonstrated that aerobic fitness is related to lower BG-PVS
                      volumes in old age and showed that aerobic fitness tends to
                      act as CR proxy against MTL tau pathology. Aerobic fitness
                      may help maintain cerebrovascular and glymphatic dysfunction
                      in old age, thereby mitigating cognitive decline.},
      month         = {Jul},
      date          = {2025-07-27},
      organization  = {Alzheimer’s Association
                       International Conference, Toronto
                       (Canada), 27 Jul 2025 - 31 Jul 2025},
      cin          = {AG Maaß / AG Düzel / AG Müller / AG Wiltfang},
      ddc          = {610},
      cid          = {I:(DE-2719)1311001 / I:(DE-2719)5000006 /
                      I:(DE-2719)1310003 / I:(DE-2719)1410006},
      pnm          = {353 - Clinical and Health Care Research (POF4-353)},
      pid          = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-353},
      typ          = {PUB:(DE-HGF)1 / PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
      doi          = {10.1002/alz70860_099453},
      url          = {https://pub.dzne.de/record/283088},
}