BACKGROUND: Physical exercise has its impact at the molecular level and aids in healthy well-being of an individual. The current systematic review emphasis on the impact of physical exercise on the telomere length in cancer prevention through epigenetic mechanism. Evidences support the impact of physical exercise in alteration of telomere length through its influence in telomerase activity. The aim of the systematic review is to analyze the effect of physical exercise in remodeling the telomere length in cancer prevention in an epigenetic prospect. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We conducted a qualitative systematic review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The systematic literature search covers articles ranging from the year 2010 to 2020. The database used for literature searches are PubMed, Cochrane, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) used for search include 'cancer' 'exercise' 'telomere length' 'telomerase expression'. The outcome variables include the telomere length, telomerase activity, telomere protein stabilizing gene expression status, micro RNA expression status. RESULTS: After exclusion of irrelevant articles 5 records are selected for final inclusion of the study and are analyzed using a Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool and SANRA tool found to be at low risk of bias and moderate quality respectively. The findings suggest chronic exercise is found to modulate the genetic and epigenetic equilibrium by either up regulation of p53 and p16 expression and stabilizing the telomerase activity within the limits or by increasing the telomerase activity and stabilizing the p53 and p16 expression within limits and impact telomere length, thus maintaining the genetic and epigenetic equilibrium. CONCLUSION: Based on the evidences collected it can be suggested that chronic moderate intensity aerobic exercise in a lifelong practice shows beneficial effects in a dose-response manner in cancer prevention in a novel way by modulating telomeres through epigenetic mechanism.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• DOI
• PDF locator
• publisher