What New Biological Age ‘Clocks’ Say about Longevity, according to Eric Topol
How old are you Really? Counting birthdays can be a common count, but your “age” is not determined by time alone. New research is increasingly showing the importance of considering chronological age as something very different from biological age – in which the body and its cells, tissues and organs all have distinct “clocks” which can check at different speeds.
“The calculation of the biological age, I think, is at the heart of the progress we have made in the science of aging,” explains Eric Topol, cardiologist and genomic teacher at Scripps Research in California. “It is a way of knowing if a person, an organ or a biological unit is at the rate of aging – if it is normal, abnormal or supernormal.”
In his new book Super agers: an approach based on evidence of longevity,, Topol plunges into the recent increase in public interest in organic aging and the quest for acceleration to refine the means of measuring it – giving a more precise image of the perspectives of longevity of a person and potential conditions which can be avoided or treated early. American scientist spoke with Topol latest research on organic aging, factors that could accelerate or slow it down and what it can tell us about our health.
On the support of scientific journalism
If you appreciate this article, plan to support our award -winning journalism by subscription. By buying a subscription, you help to ensure the future of striking stories about discoveries and ideas that shape our world today.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
How is biological age determined and how has research evolved?
The real start of this research started over ten years ago by geneticist Steven Horvath with his “clock” [test]With which, by mainly using saliva, you can watch specific genetic markers in a genome and predict the biological age of a person. Its clock is really known as a epigenetic clock or a methylation clock. As people age, DNA changes and methyle is when a methyl group [molecule] Connects to specific DNA nucleotides. I somehow compare it to the rusty body. Basically, you get marks in specific parts of the genome that follow aging in humans and all other mammal species.
In the Horvath initial test, there was clearly a detection of both alignment with the real age of the person or the chronological age – and when it not corresponding. In other words, if a person’s biological age was shifted by a few years of his real age, you would wonder why.
Then, what has been proliferated for over 10 years since has been all these other clocks: protein clocks, RNA clocks, immune system clocks – you name it. Using plasma proteins from a blood sample, we can also watch the organs – whether the heart, the brain, the liver or the kidney. So we have seen huge advances in these clocks, and they continue to refine with additional features. There is a race to get the best clocks to predict survival.
What can organic age tests be said clinically?
We can detect in an individual if something is not just at different levels. For example, if your biological age is five years older than your real age, is there an organ that could be linked to this? Then you can use these clocks to see if lifestyle, prevention or treatment can slow the pace of aging and align them with your real age.
The question is: when will the doctors really start using them? The medical community is very difficult to change. So that has not yet happened, but I think it will be ultimately. The tests are also made available by commercial companies, but they can be very expensive. You can do a very simple epigenetic test for $ 10 or $ 20, while some of these companies charge $ 200.
I have not seen their publications to be able to say with confidence that they do things correctly, and the lack of standards from one business to another is disconcerting. They don’t want to shock [customers by telling them] that they are 10 years older than their true chronological age. Finally, I believe, we are going to have high -fidelity epigenetic clocks without motivation for a supplier to remember things if a person’s data is really bad.
Why could someone aging biologically “faster” or “slower” than their real age?
If you had to choose a mechanism behind the reasons why the biological age and the chronological age are ill -aligned, it would probably be because there are genes that are either protective, linked to accelerated aging, but it is such a small part of history. Another deep cause seems to be that our immune system becomes lower and less functional as we age. In the average person, it starts around 55 to 60 years of age. It lowers its level of protection, or it is deregulated – and it can have an unfortunate hyperactive response. Now, when you have this, you start to see inflammation in the organs, as in the arteries of the heart or the brain – this is what I call “inflammat”.
Obviously, our lifestyle also has a significant impact – to capture a truly healthy diet which is not pro -inflammatory and which does not have many ultra -intensive or red meat food. Good sleep health helps reduce inflammation. There is only one thing that has been definitively demonstrated to slow down the epigenetic aging process, and it is exercise. I think these clocks will finally be very good incentives for people to adopt a healthy lifestyle. We cannot bring everyone to do all these things that we know how to help them, but if they get their own data and they see something off track, hope is that they [change their lifestyle]. It is, of course, one of the ways to prevent diseases. There are also drugs and other treatments.
What environmental factors are also important to consider?
We have all kinds of food deserts in the United States, we have atmospheric pollution and an accumulation not attenuated in the air and water of microplastics and nanoplastics, which penetrate in each part of our body and induce inflammation. And we also have chemicals forever that are omnipresent. They play a factor in lifestyle, health and aging.
Let’s talk more about “inflammation”. We know that a certain inflammation can be good for the body to fight infections, for example, but many can be bad. How does chronic inflammation potentially accelerate aging?
Inflammation and aging are so closely linked. The immune system is really the driver for good [when it attacks pathogens] And for bad when it promotes too much inflammation in the walls of the arteries or the brain. It is respectively a heart disease and a neurodegenerative disease. But what is so exciting is that we can compose or descend the immune system now. For example, [there have been] Natural and amazing experiences with Zona vaccines, which reduce dementia and Alzheimer’s disease from 20 to 25%. So how does it work? GOOD, [the vaccine] Displays the immune system in people and the elderly. This will be the essential thing to use these measures: zoom in on the immune system and inflammation to maintain the immune system of intact people and stop it when it begins to harass itself. It’s the future. In the last chapter of the book, I presented the first cup of my “immunoma” – a test of each virus and pathogen to which I was exposed, each antibody I have. But that only scrapes the surface.
The immune system clock could be the most useful of all; If I could choose one, this is the one I would like. But the immune system is very complex. Maybe we don’t have to do a systematic and complete assessment of our immunoma [that would include checking antibody titers and] sequencing of B cells, T cells and interferons. If we can use just a group of plasma proteins, it would be great. This remains to be seen. There is a human immunoma project that is just starting to try to compare things such as proteins with much more sophisticated and expensive means to go to the health of an immune system.
What are the disadvantages of the slowdown in organic aging or the extension of the lifespan?
We feel really well if we reach 85 years. “Super Agers” which do not obtain one of the four major age -related diseases [type 2 diabetes, cancer, or heart or neurodegenerative disease] Say “Well, I did it.” Of course, if you get up to 98 years old, you are Really Do well. I think we are going to have many more supergers. But that will not bypass the fact that they will eventually develop problems – one of the four large or other conditions. You may get an infection because your immune system is simply too low. Or you may break your hip because your bone density is so weak and you end up with a pulmonary embol [a clot that blocks blood flow to the lungs].
Finally, you will die and you can have a chronic disease between this point of prolonged health and when you die. I don’t want to make sense there that super agers will not see problems in the last stages of their lives. But the fact is, let’s extend the duration of health – a high quality life without These major age -related diseases – as much as possible before embarking on the slowdown in a health arc.
