ObjectTo investigate exercise‐induced effect on cognitive and vascular functions in people with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and compare it with the standard cognitive therapy.MethodsFifty‐five people with AD (77.6±6.2 years; 23.5±4.8 MMSE) were recruited and randomly assigned to Cognitive Treatment (CT, n=23) or Exercise Treatment (ET, n=22). All subjects performed 72 treatment sessions lasting 90 minutes, 3 times a week. ET included: moderate to high intensity aerobic and strength training. CT included multi‐modal stimuli (visual, verbal, auditive). Before (T0) and after (T1) the 6‐month treatment global cognitive function was measured by means of Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE). Vascular function was measured by means of Flow‐Mediated Dilation (FMD, %) and Passive‐Limb movement (PLM, calculating the variation in blood flow: ΔPeak; and Area Under the Curve: AUC) tests. A blood sample was also taken and analyzed for Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)ResultsMMSE did not change after CT nor ET and post‐treatment between‐groups (BG) difference (Diff. of means) were not found. CT group did not exhibit any change in vascular function while ET group significantly increased FMD% (3.64, p=0.003; BG Diff. of means: 4.615, p<0.001), Δpeak (135.88, p=0.004; BG Diff. of means: 160.46, p<0.001) and AUC (38.16, p=0.050; BG Diff. of means: 62.36, p=0.002). VEGF increased significantly in ET group only (8.97, p=0.047; BG Diff. of means: 12.7, p=0.004).ConclusionResults from this study show that both, standard cognitive therapy and exercise help in preserving cognitive function in people with AD. However, only exercise seems to offer the appropriate stimuli to improve also vascular function in this population. Importantly, exercise has a polyhedral and multi‐situ action since the whole organism, brain included, must respond adaptatively when activated during exercise. Most of the exercise‐induced responses include upregulation of growth factors at muscular, vascular and cerebral level as well.Support or Funding InformationThis work was supported by PRIN 2010KL2Y73This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.