Date: June 7, 2022

Source: Guangdong-HongKong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration

Zhang Li's research group in JNU's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Institute of CNS Regeneration, supported by academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences Su Guohui, published a research paper titled Physical exercise prevented stress-induced anxiety via improving brain RNA methylation in Advanced Science (IF=16.8) on June 1. The paper describes a biological mechanism in which hepatic metabolites potentiate the activity of prefrontal cortex through enhanced RNA methylation modification of synapse-related transcripts in the brain to prevent anxiety-related phenotypes.

(Screenshot of the paper)

With Su's support, the institute has focused on biological mechanism of physical exercise to improve brain health, a major scientific issue, since 2017. It has developed an exercise intervention paradigm for various affective and cognitive disorders and identified the key molecular pathways of neuroplasticity improvement induced by chronic aerobic exercise (Sci Adv 2019). The institute also analyzed the neuromechanism of physical exercise on the remodeling of cortical excitation-inhibition microcircuit (Mol Psychiatry 2021) and gave a preliminary elucidation of the molecular cellular mechanism of physical exercise to improve synapses and neural networks. 

The research, supported by Su and Prof. Jia Yanbin of the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, was completed mainly by Zhang's research group. The first authors are JNU Ph.D. student Yan Lan; postgraduate students Yang Fengzhen, Wang Mei, Wei Ji’an and Wang Yajie; and Wang Siqi. The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology's Key Research and Development Program, and the Major Brain Science Project of Guangzhou.

Link to paper: https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202105731