Patients with Alzheimer's disease who carry the APOE ε4 allele benefit more from physical exercise

INTRODUCTION: Our group has completed an exercise study of 200 patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. We found improvements in cognitive, neuropsychiatric, and physical measures in the participants who adhered to the protocol. Epidemiological studies in healthy elderly suggest that exercise preserves cognitive and physical abilities to a higher extent in APOE ε4 carriers. METHODS: In this post hoc subgroup analysis study, we investigated whether the beneficial effect of an exercise intervention in patients with mild AD was dependent on the patients' APOE genotype. RESULTS: We found that patients who were APOE ε4 carriers benefitted more from the exercise intervention by preservation of cognitive performance and improvement in physical measures. DISCUSSION: This exploratory study establishes a possible connection between the beneficial effects of exercise in AD and the patients' APOE genotype. These findings, if validated, could greatly impact the clinical management of patients with AD and those at risk for developing AD.