Cellular aging could be predictive of disease risk
Certain signatures related to cell aging could be indicative of future diseases.
In a study published in Nature Medicine, researchers used plasma proteomics to assess more than 7,000 proteins in the plasma samples of more than 60,000 participants. They sought to better understand cell aging across more than 40 cell types — including neuronal, immune, glial, endocrine, epithelial and musculoskeletal cells.
The researchers found that up to 25% and 3% of the participants exhibited accelerated cell aging in at least one or 10 or more cell types, respectively. Cell aging signatures were linked to future disease risk and mortality over a period of 15 years. For instance, astrocyte age was positively correlated with the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in participants homozygous for apolipoprotein E4. The researchers observed older astrocytes and younger macrophages in those with the APOE4 genotype compared with the APOE3 genotype, and younger astrocytes and older macrophages in those with the APOE2 genotype.
Further, greater skeletal myocyte and cardiomyocyte aging was associated with a higher risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Greater aging in alveolar type 2 cells and respiratory epithelial cells was associated with a higher risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer — particularly among those who smoked and demonstrated greater cellular aging compared with those who smoked alone for lung cancer. Regarding adverse cardiovascular outcomes, the researchers revealed that greater muscle cell and fibroblast aging was associated with a higher risk of heart failure and greater NEFL-C1QL2 projection neuronal followed by microglial cell aging was associated with a higher risk of stroke. They also explained that greater myeloid lineage aging was connected with a higher Type 2 diabetes risk and greater B-cell followed by granulocyte aging was associated with a higher lymphoma risk. Younger neuronal and immune cells appeared to provide a protective effect on survival, whereas extreme cellular aging across more than 20 cell types was linked to a 34% likelihood of 15-year survival compared with those who didn’t exhibit extreme multicellular aging.
The researchers used their findings to develop a polycellular aging risk score to help predict aging trajectories, disease susceptibility and the risk of early mortality at the cellular level.
Read more: Nature Medicine
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