Key points from article :
Researchers has created a set of methylation clocks that can detect various aging patterns.
Invented the advanced PhenoAge clock with a method of reducing the variability of existing clocks via principal component analysis.
Systems Age works on lower levels (subcellular elements, cells, tissues, organs), capturing interpersonal ageing differences in higher detail.
Accounting for these differences can be immensely helpful for aging research as well as personalized prevention, detection, and treatment.
Includes 11 system-specific scores, such as musculoskeletal, heart, inflammation, and a full Systems Age score which “re-unifies” into a single measurement of biological age.
Researchers tested associations with disease incidence, prevalence, and various functional parameters of aging.
Showed high levels of correlation between system scores and the corresponding aging phenotypes (such as brain score and cognition).
Compared to three existing top-tier clocks, System Age scores were more predictive for 10 out of 14 diseases.
Systems Age also outperformed the other clocks in categories such as mortality, comorbidities, and cognitive and physical function.
Researchers identified nine clusters (aging subtypes) that showed different associations with certain diseases.
"We developed multiple novel systems-based methylation clocks that, when assessed in blood using a single DNA sample and assay, capture aging in distinct physiological systems," - Morgan Levine from Altos Labs.
Study by Yale School of Medicine, with preprint version published in bioRxiv.
