UWS Academic Portal Effects of exercise training on multiple sclerosis biomarkers of central nervous system and disease status Negaresh,

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis is a demyelinating and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that can be tracked through biomarkers of disease status. We investigated the effects of exercise on MS biomarkers associated with central nervous system status including imaging, blood-brain barrier function and neurotrophic factors. METHODS: We conducted open-dated searches of Scopus, Medline, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library. We included studies written in English describing interventions of exercise that measured one or more of the biomarkers associated with multiple sclerosis published until October 2018. RESULTS: We located a total of 3012 citations through searches in electronic databases. Of these, 16 studies were eligible for review; six studies focused on magnetic resonance imaging markers, nine studies focused on neurotrophic factors, and three studies focused on blood-brain barrier function markers. Of note, two studies included both neurotrophic factor and blood-brain barrier function markers and are therefore included across categories of biomarkers in this review. The existing evidence from magnetic resonance imaging studies confirmed that exercise training can improve central nervous system integrity and function. There is evidence of a positive effect of exercise training on modulation of blood-brain barrier permeability markers and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. CONCLUSIONS: Exercise successfully improves magnetic resonance imaging outcomes and peripheral biomarkers (i.e., brain-derived neurotrophic factor) in people with multiple sclerosis. This suggests that exercise can be recommended as an adjuvant therapy for multiple sclerosis treatment. This conclusion is tempered by some methodological limitations including small sample sizes and high drop-out rates in the reviewed studies.