In Silico Meta-Analysis of Telomerase Dynamics: The Intersecting Roles of Endurance Exercise and Circadian Rhythm

Background: Telomerase (hTERT) activation mitigates cellular senescence and preserves genomic integrity. While chronic endurance exercise is well-documented to upregulate telomerase activity, the regulatory influence of circadian rhythms on this biological process remains largely unexplored. This study aims to synthesize existing literature to evaluate the potential cross-talk between exercise-induced telomere protection and chronobiology. Methods: An exploratory, hypothesis-generating in silico meta-analysis was conducted using a custom Python-based bioinformatics pipeline. A total of 39 peer-reviewed articles were programmatically extracted from the NCBI PubMed database via the Biopython API. A rule-based Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithm was deployed to perform automated semantic impact analysis on the abstracts, classifying the reported effects on telomerase and categorizing prominent biological mechanisms. Results: The NLP-driven extraction revealed a distinct dichotomy within the literature. The majority (60%) of exercise-focused studies reported positive (enhancing or protective) effects on telomerase activity. Conversely, 50% of the chronobiology-focused literature reported negative (damaging) outcomes associated with circadian rhythm disruption. The clock gene network and htert emerged as the most frequently cited molecular mechanisms modulating these dynamics. Conclusion: Our literature synthesis indicates that while endurance exercise promotes genetic repair, circadian disruption exerts a concurrent antagonistic effect. These observations generate the hypothesis that exercise-induced telomerase activation may be attenuated if performed out of sync with the internal biological clock, underscoring the need for chronobiological synchronization in physical interventions.