MINI REVIEW article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Sleep and Circadian Rhythms
Mechanism study of exercise intervention on circadian disruption in Alzheimer's disease
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yangzhou University, 扬州市, China
- 2Suzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Suzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Alzheimer's disease (AD) induces profound circadian disruption—characterized by suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) degeneration, Aβ and tau pathology, and aberrant melatonin secretion which results in fragmented sleep–wake cycles and cognitive decline. Emerging evidence indicates that exercise significantly ameliorates these circadian rhythm and sleep–wake disturbances through multiple mechanisms. Specifically, exercise accelerates the removal of Aβ and tau by activating autophagy– lysosomal degradation and glymphatic clearance, thereby reducing the neuropathological burden. Furthermore, exercise also upregulates neuroprotective pathways and strengthens the amplitude and phase stability of core clock gene oscillations, which in turn restores robust melatonin rhythmicity and SCN function. Collectively, these effects break the vicious cycle between AD pathology and circadian disruption, stabilizing circadian homeostasis and improving cognitive function. These mechanistic insights highlight exercise as a robust non-pharmacological chronotherapeutic strategy for ameliorating circadian disruption in AD. These insights support the development of personalized, chronotype-tailored exercise interventions to resynchronize circadian rhythms and ultimately improve sleep quality and cognitive function in patients with AD.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, circadian rhythm disruption, Exercise Intervention, Aβ clearance, melatonin rhythm, core clock genes
Received: 02 Sep 2025; Accepted: 26 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Shi, 董, Sun, Qian and Jin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qiheng Qian
Qiguan Jin
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.