Exercise May Improve Effects of Radiation Therapy in Prostate Cancer

Cancer is the second leading cause of death around the world after heart disease. This week, researchers exploring the effects of exercise as a natural preventive tool and noninvasive treatment for cancer will present their work at the American Physiological Society (APS) Integrative Physiology of Exercise conference.

Alcohol Use Increases among People Living with HIV during Stay-at-home Order

Researchers at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans honed in on one population particularly at risk during the pandemic: people living with HIV with at-risk alcohol use. They surveyed 80 people living with HIV in Louisiana during that state’s stay-at-home order, recruiting participants from the ongoing longitudinal Aging in Louisiana: Immunosenescence, HIV and Socioenvironmental Factors-Exercise (ALIVE-Ex) study.

How the Pandemic Has Changed Our Exercise Habits in (Sometimes) Positive Ways

The health disruptions caused by COVID-19 reverberate even beyond those who have contracted SARS-CoV-2. As the pandemic triggers moves to limit contact and thus transmission, many have found their daily routines, including their exercise habits, changing. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends adults between 18 and 64 get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week. WHO identifies physical inactivity as the “fourth leading risk factor for global mortality” and attributes approximately 3.2 million deaths a year to insufficient physical activity.

Researchers Explore How Exercise Influences Tendon Inflammation

Stephanie Dakin, PhD, BVetMed, from the University of Oxford in the U.K., studied the microscopic characteristics of tendons in people with exercise-related tendinopathy. Tendinopathy is a tendon disorder that causes pain, inflammation and limited function of the affected joint. Her research team found an increased number of blood vessels and cells—suggestive of inflammatory response—in the injured tendon samples when compared with healthy tissue.

Intense Training Disturbs Tendon Homeostasis, Leads to Injury

Michael Kjaer, MD, PhD, of Copenhagen University and Bispebjerg Hospital in Denmark, will discuss the effects of exercise and sedentary behavior on tendon loading and collagen turnover. “The collagen turnover in tendon can be up- and down-regulated with exercise or inactivity, respectively, and specific parts of the tendon are responsible for this loading-induced collagen dynamics. Long-term overuse of tendon (e.g., intense training) results in disturbed homeostasis and swelling of the tendon, excess angiogenesis and upregulated formation of collagen,” Kjaer wrote.

Compounds in Active Muscles May Help Slow Lung Cancer Growth

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the U.S. and accounts for roughly 25% of all cancer deaths. Patrick Ryan, MS, from Texas A&M University, and his research team found that treating cultured lung cancer cells with blood collected from contracting muscles—muscles that were exercised—did not grow as much as untreated cells.

Moderate-pace Walking Shrunk Pancreatic Cancer Tumors and Increased Cancer-killing Cells, Small Study Shows

Emily LaVoy, PhD, of the University of Houston, and colleagues explored the effects of moderate-intensity exercise on a mouse model of pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer can be a particularly dangerous form of cancer because it is often diagnosed in later stages and spreads quickly. Though the trial sample was small—thus warranting further study—the results were optimistic.

Regular Exercise May Protect Cardiovascular Cells during Chemotherapy

Marie Mclaughlin, MSc, from Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland, will present research on human endothelial cells treated with FEC-T, a chemotherapy regimen that combines four drugs (5 fluorouracil, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide and docetaxel). The researchers found that preconditioning the endothelial cells with serum (blood) from people who habitually exercise caused less cell death than samples that were treated with untrained serum (people who exercised less than 75 minutes per week). “Exercise preconditioning can provide protection against these detrimental effects in vitro,” Mclaughlin explained.

Circadian Clock Regulates Body’s Collagen Production

Researchers featured in the “Homeostasis and adaptation of tendons to exercise” symposium—presented this week virtually at the American Physiological Society (APS) Integrative Physiology of Exercise conference—will discuss how exercise, inactivity and the body’s internal clock drive structural changes to tendons and their supportive tissues.