The effect of forced exercise on leptin and neuropeptide Y in the Parkinson's mouse model

Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Symptoms characteristic of Parkinson's patients significantly reduce the quality of life of patients. Current treatment methods aim to increase dopamine neurotransmission, which provides symptomatic relief, but there is still no definitive treatment. Aerobic exercise has been proven to reduce motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease. In addition, there has recently been increasing evidence for the neurotrophic and neuroprotective functions of leptin signaling and neuropeptide Y in Parkinson's disease. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of exercise on Neuropeptide Y and leptin in Parkinson's disease histologically, biochemically and in vivo experiments. In this study, 8-10 weeks old C57BL/6 type male mice were treated with mandatory exercise protocol to reduce motor and non-motor symptoms; The rod test, the rotarod test, the open field test, and the elevated plus maze test were evaluated. Cells in the striatum tissue were examined after hematoxylin-eosin staining. Leptin and neuropeptide Y levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent activity assay kits. The symptomatic changes in Parkinson's disease were investigated. Our results showed that exercise did not significantly alter NPY levels in PD (p>0.05), while striatal leptin expression was increased endogenously compared to healthy controls and the non-exercise Parkinson's group. Anxiety and depression levels were highest in the Parkinson's group who did not exercise. The cells of the Parkinson's group who exercised were healthier and less neurofibrillary loss than those who did not. We found that the neuroprotection of exercise was mediated by leptin, and exercise in Parkinson's disease showed a leptin-mediated neuroprotective effect, while the exercise center did not significantly change leptin expression in healthy conditions. Keywords: Parkinson Disease, NPY, Leptin, Forced exercise, MPTP