Scientists have developed a molecular test to determine how
well a person is aging. A team of researchers from 3 countries worked for seven
years to develop the method which calculates a person’s biological age instead
of chronological age. They say "health" and "age" are two
separate entities.
This project is a collaborative effort by researchers from King's
College London, UK; Duke University in Durham, North Carolina; and Karolinska
Institute in Sweden. The scientists believe this new development will make managing
age-related neurodegenerative diseases such Alzheimer’s and other dementias
easier.
"Physical capacity such as strength or onset of disease
is often used to assess 'healthy aging' in the elderly but in contrast, we can
now measure aging before symptoms of decline or illness occur," said lead
author Prof. James Timmons of Kings College London.
By using a process known as RNA-profiling, the researchers
discovered that the activation of 150 genes in blood, brain and muscle tissue
were character of good health and it enabled them to create a healthy ageing
formula which they used to find out how well a person was ageing when compared
to others born the same year. [Read more What
causes aging? Can the process be slowed]
The researchers first measured the levels of RNA in the
blood of healthy 65-year-old adults and thereby analyzed the activity levels of
their key genes.
The team next studied the RNA of healthy 70-year-old men.
Their health records for over twenty years were then analyzed. It was
discovered that high gene-activity scores in these adults were associated with
better cognitive skills and kidney function across a 12-year period. Both of these
functions forecast the risk of early death.
“The men who had a really high score had almost no chance of
being dead at the end of the 20 years,” said Prof. Timmons.
The researchers said that this is the first time a medical
research was provided an accurate test which shows the rate at which people’s
bodies are ageing. Since age is a critical factor in almost all areas of
medicine, they believe that this discovery could lead to many insights in
research.
The test does not show how an individual can improve his or
her biological age.
They also found a link between low scores and decline in
cognitive skills. In the future, the mechanics behind this test could help
develop blood tests to identify those at a high risk of Alzheimer’s or other
dementias. The test could also improve donor
matching for elder people in need
of organ transplants.
"Whilst it is natural for our bodies and brains to slow
down as we age, premature aging and the more severe loss of physical and cognitive
function can have devastating consequences for the individual and their
families, as well as impact more widely upon society and the economy,”
This new test holds great potential as with further
research, it may help improve the development and evaluation of treatments that
prolong good health in older age," said Dr. Neha Issar-Brown, program
manager for population health sciences at the Medical Research Council in the
UK, who also provided funding for the research.
The findings were published in the journal Genome Biology.
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