# Reducing African Americans' Alzheimer's Disease Risk Through Exercise (RAATE)

> **NIH NIH R01** · LSU PENNINGTON BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CTR · 2021 · $719,854

## Abstract

Abstract
Alzheimer's Disease is steadily growing in prevelance, with a devastating public health impact. The prevelance
of Alzheimer's Disease is higher in African Americans compared to white Americans, thereby constituting a
health disparity. Interventions that prevent Alzheimer's Disease or change the course of cognitive decline
associated with Alzheimer's Disease are needed. Most older adults do not achieve the recommended levels of
physical activity, and this includes African Americans. Regular physical activity has proven to be a safe and
effective means to enhance cognitive function in older adults ranging from cognitively healthy to mildly
cognitively impaired. Therefore our study is focused on physical activity promotion, a potent approach to
modifying multiple neurobiological pathways implicated in Alzheimer's Disease. We evaluate exercise benefits
among elderly African Americans, who are understudied and in whom the natural course of
neurodegeneration, exercise effects in neuroprotection and neurodegeneration, and resulting clinical
phenotypes may differ. A large body of exisiting data suggests that exercise improves cardiovascular and
cerebrovascular functioning, and thus has the potential to enhance perivascular clearance of amyloid and
reduce chronic brain tissue ischemia, among other beneficial effects. At the same time, chronic exercise has
been shown to decrease central levels of inflammatory markers and increase central levels of neurotrophic
factors, which in turn promote protection against Alzheimer's Disease neurodegeneration pathways via a
variety of mechanisms. While physical activity interventions have been shown to have positive effects on these
factors and on resultant cognitive functioning in older adults, nearly all interventions have had a negligible
representation of African Americans. Prior dara suggests that African Americans enter their elderly years
against a backdrop of different lifespan exposures to a variety of factors relevant to neuroprotection and
neurodegeneration, including cardiovascular risk, exercise, diet, and education. In addition, prior data suggests
that the key genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's Diease (APOE) may have differing consequences for
Alzheimer's Diease risk among African Americans, and other genetic differences have the potential to
influence the brain benefits of physical activity in this community. We will utilize a randomized clinical trial to
address these questions. Participants will be randomized into a physical promotion intervention or a healthy
aging information group for 52 weeks. All participants will be of normal cognitive function. We will assess
cognitive function, brain structure and function, circulating hormones, objectively measured physical activity,
cardiorespiratory fitness, and telomere length. Our study will take the first step toward understanding whether
the hypothesized benefits of exercise for the brain carry over to elderly African Americans.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10076757
- **Project number:** 5R01AG062200-03
- **Recipient organization:** LSU PENNINGTON BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** OWEN T. CARMICHAEL
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $719,854
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-15 → 2025-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10076757

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10076757, Reducing African Americans' Alzheimer's Disease Risk Through Exercise (RAATE) (5R01AG062200-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10076757. Licensed CC0.

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