Summary: CheekAge, the second version of the DNA methylation epigenetic clock, is easier to use and better at predicting the risk of death. For years, researchers have been able to predict the risk of death reliably using DNA methylation tests on blood. DNA methylation is a set of chemical tags on your genes. Now researchers are improving this clock.
Humans have long wanted to predict a few things. One is the risk of death: how long a person would live if no accident or other mishap struck first. Predicting this well may also help people live longer.
It is no secret that no two people age the same way. Some people seem to age fast, and others slowly. That is why health experts, including chronic pain specialists, talk more and more about things like metabolic age, which differs from your age in years.
Science also knows some of the things that speed up aging. These include stress, metabolic disorders, inflammation, smoking, alcohol, toxins around us and more.
Of course, some might say that how fast you age, and how long you live, depends on your genes. That is partly true. But researchers now know that lifestyle changes can change even genes, or more exactly, how genes are switched on (gene expression). The study of these changes caused by lifestyle is called epigenetics. Lifestyle choices and surroundings can change how genes are switched on and affect how long people live. And these changes can be measured.
We cannot change our genes. But we can make the right lifestyle choices, and those can cause good epigenetic changes. Measuring epigenetic changes helps science understand many things, including how long a person may live. It is vital to understand that for most people, lifestyle choices matter more than genes. That means epigenetic markers can be reliable markers of the risk of death.
Over the years, researchers have found epigenetic markers that help predict a person’s age and risk of death. They call it the “epigenetic clock.” To build one, researchers tested DNA methylation in blood cells. They tested tens of thousands of spots on the DNA for methylation. Then they compared the results with people’s age in years to build a clock that predicts the risk of death.
In their latest work, they are trying to improve this clock by building a second-generation version. They are also looking for simpler tests to predict the risk of death. This clock is used to predict the risk of death and of many health disorders. In time, these findings could help interventional pain management in St. Louis experts, who often want to know a patient’s wider health outlook when managing chronic conditions.
In the new study, researchers built a clock called CheekAge. They used a swab from inside the cheek (the buccal cavity) to test DNA methylation, or aging.
For this research, investigators have followed people born in 1921 and 1936, through the University of Edinburgh’s Lothian Birth Cohorts (LBC) program. The group included 1513 adults. Experts have been testing 450,000 DNA methylation spots on a regular basis. They have started using the CheekAge clock and found it reliable, or even better than their earlier clock.
Researchers trained their computer model to predict the risk of death more precisely. They have now significantly improved on earlier models. Each new model should be even better and give more health information.
This is an example of what is waiting for everyone in the coming years. Just imagine that a cheek swab test could help predict a person’s age (metabolic age) and mortality risk in coming years. This is no longer a science fiction.
Now, researchers plan to enhance their model further. They want to focus on predicting the risk of various age-related diseases. This would help science increase a healthy lifespan.
Source:
Shokhirev, M. N., Kramer, D. J., Corley, J., Cox, S. R., Cuellar, T. L., & Johnson, A. A. (2024). CheekAge, a next-generation epigenetic buccal clock, is predictive of mortality in human blood. Frontiers in Aging, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fragi.2024.1460360
Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP
