For anyone interested in knowing exactly when they’re going to die, good news! A team of researchers has come up with a set of tools that can give you a better understanding of when you’re gonna kick the bucket, and it’s all centered around the wear and tear of your cells and organs.
According to a study published in Nature, scientists have developed a new “transcriptomic clock” that measures biological age by analyzing gene activity. Counting years is good for figuring out how many candles to put on your cake, but it’s an inelegant, imprecise way to determine how old you actually are. This tool peers into your RNA to see which genes are turned on or off as we age.
This approach looks at gene expression patterns across more than 11,000 samples from four animals: mice, rats, macaques, and we humans. The researchers compared multiple tissue samples from different parts of the body to build a multi-species model designed to estimate a person’s chronological age, but also expected mortality risk.
Humans and Rats Age Surprisingly Similarly
Their findings suggest that aging leaves behind a distinct signature in our bodies. Genes tied to healthy cell division and repair tend to signal slower biological aging. Genes associated with inflammation and cell death were linked to faster aging.
Researchers were surprised by how consistent these gene expression patterns were across species and organs studied. The same age-related genes showed up in rat livers as they did in human hearts. That implies there’s a shared biological framework for aging across animal species, even if scientists aren’t really sure whether gene changes were causing aging or were a result of it or were representing the body’s attempt at fighting off the effects of aging.
The practical effects of a tool like this would extend further beyond a simple predictor of death. It could help researchers evaluate how diseases, medicines, and lifestyle affect a person’s biological aging process, and would be able to observe it all without having to sit back and wait several years to see how someone’s lifestyle choices are impacting their lifespan.
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