Let's check the biological clock
Scientists presented methods for determining the actual age of a person
Maria Volkova, Rossiyskaya Gazeta
"Life expectancy is increasing all over the world, so scientists everywhere are concerned about the issue of assessing the biological age of a person," says Maria Vedunova, Director of the Institute of Biology and Biomedicine of Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University (UNN), Doctor of Biological Sciences. – We have a lot of genetically determined diseases that directly depend on age. For example, type 2 diabetes mellitus. Few people think about testing glucose tolerance in 20-30 years, right? At the same time, as we get older, we may notice that many peers look older or younger than us. But how to estimate a person's biological age? Scientists from all over the world are working on this issue. UNN took the first step in this direction in 2018, when it began research in the field of digital medicine of healthy aging under the leadership of Europe's leading gerontologist Claudio Francesca. This is how the study of epigenetics began: the field is completely new, in Russia it is extremely little studied. And the whole world is just coming to understand the processes of regulation of gene activity.
In recent decades, Western scientists have been actively developing various molecular clocks. For Russian specialists, it was important, firstly, to verify the data received by foreign colleagues, since the domestic gene pool was formed in other conditions. Even studies that relate to Western pharmaceuticals are not always relevant in Russian realities.
What is epigenetics? If you do not go into the complex terminology, which is owned by narrow specialists, then you can explain it this way. Each cell of the human body has a common set of genes – the same unique code that we get from our father and mother. But at the same time, liver and brain cells perform different functions: if you look at them under a microscope, you can see that they are very different from each other. The fact is that different genes are active/suppressed in them. And the mechanism that is responsible for this is called epigenetic regulation.
– It is possible at the chemical level with the help of enzymes to "sew" the desired methyl group on DNA, and a particular gene will stop working. Imagine a zipper. Even a small piece of thread stuck between the teeth will lead to the fact that it will not be fastened to the end. There is a similar principle here: a small "hairpin" – and there is no gene expression," explains Maria Vedunova.
The study of epigenetic regulation is extremely important in the context of the development of any disease and the entire physiological process of aging. But it is very difficult and expensive to evaluate epigenetic changes in the entire genome. Therefore, Nizhny Novgorod residents have developed a system for determining the biological age of a person based on epigenetic labels (markers). There are four of them. The study on the search for markers of age-dependent pathologies was the first in Russia. 500 Nizhny Novgorod residents took part in it. The developers also used existing databases that contain thousands of studies.
As a result, the BioAgeCalculator application appeared, where two methods for calculating biological age are presented. The "epigenetic clock" uses DNA methylation markers: now the analysis can only be done in the laboratory of the UNN, since this is a fundamental study. But Nizhny Novgorod specialists hope that in the future such a test can be done in every Russian laboratory.
– We want to refine the diagnostic system so that it is accessible to everyone. And then we will proceed to the development of peer-to-peer, preventive, personalized markers of age-dependent diseases. These will be separate lines for oncology, cardiovascular diseases, and the endocrine system with a high-precision approach in groups," says Maria Vedunova.
At the same time, the application has a second way of calculating biological age – "biochemical clock". This method is slightly less accurate, but it is quite working. To do this, the user needs to take a general blood test and a biochemical one of several indicators (creatinine, albumin, glucose, alkaline phosphatase, C-reactive protein). You will need to enter them into the calculator of the application, specify your date of birth and get the result. Each user will be able to think about adjusting their biological age in order to turn the arrows back.
– A person, if desired, is able to adjust the dynamics of the development of age acceleration. A change in nutrition has a beneficial effect. These are products that have a good effect on the intestinal microflora responsible for the activity of the immune system. In fact, aging is associated with aging of the immune system, – the specialist shares.
By the way
Scientists advise checking your biological age about once every year and a half to assess the individual aging process.
And they remind you that a healthy lifestyle is the basis of a good result for many years. Smoking cessation helps some, while reducing the calorie content of food helps others.
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