Association between Exercise Habits and Cognitive Function in Nicotine Dependent Male College Students:Integrated Gut Microbiota and Untargeted Metabolomics Analyses

Objective: To invtestigate the relationship between exercise habits and cognitive function of nicotine dependent male college students, and to explore the association between the differences of intestinal flora and metabolites and cognitive function in nicotine dependent male college students with different exercise habits. Methods: 30 nicotine dependent male college students were divided into exercise habit group(HEgroup) and non-exercise habit group(n-HE group) according to their exercise habits. The work memory and inhibition ability were measured by Sternberg paradigm and Go/NoGo paradigm. The gutmicrobiota and gut metabolites were measured and analyzed by high-throughput sequencing and untargeted chromatography-mass spectrometry.Results: 1) The cognitive function and inhibition ability was better in HE group than that of n-HE group(P<0.05). 2) The abundance of Betaproteobacteria, Erysipelotrichia, Burkholderiales, Alcaligenaceae and Sutterella in HE group was significantly higher than that of n-HE group(P<0.05); as a kind of harmful gutmicrobiota, the abundance of Escherichia in n-HE group was higher than that of HE group(P<0.05). 3) In terms of metabolites, the content of γ-aminobutyric acid and acetylcholine in HE group was significantly higher than that of n-HE group(P<0.05), and the content of sarcosine and sphingosine in n-HE group wassignificantly higher than those in HE group(P<0.05). 4) A positive correlation between Alcaligenaceaeand cognitive function was observed(P<0.01), and a negative correlation between Prevotellaceae, Bacteroidaceae and Gemellaceaeand cognitive function was detected(P<0.05); among the metabolites, pipemidicacid and indole were positively correlated with cognitive function(P<0.05),while sarcosine, genipin and carbolic acid were negatively correlated with cognitive function(P<0.05). Conclusions: Exercise can improve the work memory and inhibition ability of nicotine dependent male college students, that means it canalleviate the damage of cognitive function induced bynicotine. The combined omics analysis of gut microbiota and untargeted metabolism suggests that gut microbiota and gut metabolites are the factors in exercise regulating cognitive function innicotine dependent male college students.