A recent research identifies the molecular signature of biological aging

 

 

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered blood-based indicators associated with both healthy and rapid aging, which enables them to estimate an individual’s biological age, or the rate at which their cells and organs age independent of their date of birth.

The study, which was published in Aging Cell, identifies molecules and pathways that may underpin biological age. This helps to explain why individuals age differently and offers new targets for therapies that may delay the aging process and lengthen a person’s healthspan.

Senior author Aditi Gurkar, Ph.D., an associate professor of geriatric medicine at Pitt’s School of Medicine and a member of the Aging Institute, a collaboration between Pitt and UPMC, stated, “Age is more than just a number.” “Consider two 65-year-olds: One can’t climb stairs, while the other commutes by bike to work and enjoys weekend skiing. Despite having drastically different biological ages, they are the same age chronologically. Why are these two different in their ages? My study is motivated by this question.”

Gurkar and her team compared 196 older adults—who they categorized as either healthy or fast agers—based on how easy they accomplished basic walking challenges in order to get an answer to this issue. Other studies have demonstrated that walking ability is the most reliable indicator of hospitalization, disability, functional decline, and death in older persons because it is a comprehensive assessment of cardiovascular fitness, physical strength, and neurological health.


The fast agers, who were 65 to 75 years old, had to rest during these difficulties, whereas the healthy agers, who were 75 years or older, could climb a flight of stairs or walk for 15 minutes without stopping.

In contrast to other studies that have compared young adults with older persons, Gurkar claims that this one is special because the rapid agers were chronologically younger than the healthy agers, allowing the researchers to focus on signs of biological aging rather than chronological aging.

They used blood samples from the two groups to undertake metabolomics, or the study of metabolites, which are compounds created by chemical processes in the body, in order to identify a molecular fingerprint of biological aging in participant blood samples.

“Other studies have looked at genetics to measure biological aging, but genes are very static: the genes you’re born with are the genes you die with,” Gurkar went on to say. “We chose to look at metabolites because they are dynamic: They change in real time to reflect our current health and how we feel, and we have the power to influence them through our lifestyles, diet and environment.”

Healthy and fast agers have distinct metabolomes, suggesting that metabolites in the blood can indicate biological age.

Gurkar and her colleagues then discovered 25 metabolites, which they named the Healthy Aging Metabolic (HAM) Index. They discovered that the HAM Index outperformed other regularly used aging measures, such as the frailty index, walking speed, and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment exam, in discriminating between healthy and fast aging individuals.

To confirm their new indicator, the researchers examined a different cohort of older persons from a Wisconsin-based study. The HAM index successfully predicted whether people could walk outside for 10 minutes without stopping, with an accuracy of roughly 68%.

“We took a very different cohort of people from a different geographical region, and we saw the same metabolites were associated with biological aging,” Gurkar went on to say. “This gives us confidence that the HAM Index can truly predict who is a healthy ager versus a rapid ager.”

Using an artificial intelligence model that can anticipate probable drivers of biological features, the researchers discovered three major metabolites that are most likely to support healthy aging or accelerate aging. In the future, they hope to investigate how these metabolites and the molecular mechanisms that make them contribute to biological aging, as well as potential therapies to halt this process.

Gurkar also plans to do more study to see how the metabolome of younger people changes over time. She intends to eventually create a blood test that can determine biological age in young persons or identify who may acquire aging-related disorders.

“While it’s great that we can predict biological aging in older adults, what would be even more exciting is a blood test that, for example, can tell someone who’s 35 that they have a biological age more like a 45-year-old,” said Gurkar. “That person could then think about changing aspects of their lifestyle early—whether that’s improving their sleep, diet or exercise regime—to hopefully reverse their biological age.”