Abstract

Circadian rhythms, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) are closely related and interacted with each other. We have previously showed circadian disruption aggravated progression of AD in T2DM mice. Time-restricted feeding (TRF) is shown to be a potential synchronizer. This study aims to determine whether TRF has a protective effect against the circadian disruption-aggravated progression of AD in T2DM. 6-week-old male diabetic (db/db) mice and wildtype (wt/wt) mice were kept under normal 12:12 light/dark cycles or altered 6:18 light/dark cycles (dark extended to 18 h) with or without TRF (food restricted to 8 h during the active (dark) period). After 8 weeks, three behavioral tests (open field test, novel object recognition test , barnes maze test) were performed and the circadian gene expression, body weight, lipid levels and AD-associated tau phosphorylation were evaluated. We found altered light/dark cycles contributed to disruptive circadian rhythms in the hippocampus of db/db mice, while TRF prevented this effect. TRF also ameliorated circadian disruption-aggravated increased body weight and lipid accumulation in db/db mice. Importantly, the db/db mice under circadian disruption showed impaired cognition accompanied by increased tau phosphorylation, whereas TRF reversed these changes. The altered light/dark cycles only affected circadian rhythms but not other indicators like plasma/liver lipids, cognition and tau phosphorylation in the wt/wt mice. Collectively, TRF has a protective effect against altered light/dark cycles-aggravated AD progression in diabetic mice.