Kohut's studies on the elderly, exercise, and the influenza vaccine net Dean's Research Recognition Award

A series of studies on the elderly, exercise, and the influenza vaccine has not only created interest in the health community, but it has also led to a prestigious award. Principle investigator (PI) Marian Kohut, associate professor of kinesiology and immunobiology, has received the Dean’s Research Recognition Award.

 

Craig Gundersen received the Dean's Research Recognition Reserve Award,

 

For the past five years, Kohut has focused her research on the body’s modulation of the immune response to viral infection, with special attention to the impacts of aging, exercise, neuroendocrine factors, and dietary supplements. The Dean’s Research Award recognizes research conducted under the grant entitled, “Exercise and influenza immunity: A Psychoneuroendocrine model.” The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institute of Health (NIH). A series of three published studies and two forthcoming studies resulted from this research grant.  

 

“It is pretty well known that aging affects immune responses and the ability to fight against infection,” Kohut said. “In terms of potential therapies that we can employ, there aren’t a lot of options. Most have side effects or aren’t practical. But, not a lot was known about the extent to which exercise might affect immune response, so we designed a study to examine that possibility and found that people who exercise have a better response to the influenza vaccine. It’s not the fountain of youth, but it helps.”

 

Kohut's articles included in her award nomination materials focus on the areas of exercise, influenza immunization, and the potential role of psychosocial factors in mediating the effects of exercise. The study, “Moderate exercise improves antibody response to influenza immunization in older adults,” was published in Vaccine in 2004. In this study, adult subjects over the age of 65 participated in moderate aerobic exercise for 10 months, and the results showed that exercise improved the antibody response to influenza vaccination in older adults.

 

The second paper, “The exercise-induced enhancement of influenza immunity is mediated in part by improvements in psychosocial factors in older adults,” looks at whether exercise-associated improvements of the immune response to influenza vaccination were mediated by improvements in psychosocial factors in older adults. The findings suggested that the increase in antibody response to the vaccine was not mediated by improvement in psychosocial scores, but the increase in one cytokine important in antiviral defense was mediated in part by a reduction in depression. This was published in 2005 in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

 

The third paper in the series, “Aerobic exercise, but not flexibility/resistance exercise, reduces serum IL-18, CRP, and IL-6, independent of β–blockers, BMI, and psychosocial factors in older adults,” focuses on the use of aerobic exercise intervention to significantly reduce inflammation among older adults. The study found that aerobic exercise, as compared to flexibility, strength, and balance exercises, played a large role in reducing the serum inflammatory mediators measured in the study. These findings are important given that multiple chronic diseases (heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s Disease, obesity, etc.) are associated with higher levels of inflammatory factors. This study was published in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity in 2006. Kohut also won the “New Investigator Award” from the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society in 2006 as a result of this paper.

 

In addition to the upcoming two studies in this area, Kohut said she will continue to work in the area of aging and immune response. One of her current studies also funded by NIH is focused on mechanisms by which exercise improves host resistance to influenza virus infection in aged mice. She is also collaborating with Diane Birt, distinguished professor, food science and human nutrition along with other faculty in multiple colleges, on a separate study involving botanical supplements and immune responses. Her work in the field has an impact on both the state and national level.

 

“Iowa has one of the largest percentages of older adults in the nation.” Kohut said. “Our goal in the College of Human Science (CHS) is to improve the health and well-being of people, and our work directly relates to that. All participants in these studies receive copies of the publication and can hopefully benefit from their experiences.”

 

Kohut said the award speaks well of the Department of Kinesiology, as well as the interdisciplinary program in Immunobiology.

 

“This project is just one of the things we work on here,” Kohut said. “I hope this will give people a better understanding of the type of research conducted in the Department of Kinesiology and the College of Human Science.”