From a research project that included some 5,000 individuals, scientists have found that methylation patterns are linked with age, and that older-looking methylation states may predict how much longer people will live.
In biological science, methylation is catalyzed by enzymes and it relates to the regulation of gene expression or to the regulation of protein function. Methylation is a common epigenetic signaling tool that cells use to lock genes in the “off” position. In recent years there has been discussion about how methylation occurs, where it occurs and what it means.
According to Ian Deary, the study’s senior author and a researcher at the University of Edinburgh, the new finding is “is exciting as it has identified a novel indicator of aging, which improves the prediction of life span over and above the contribution of factors such as smoking, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”
The study used two established measures that compare a person’s chronological age to the age predicted by DNA methylation to see how those metrics correlate with longevity. The researchers found that when a person’s DNA methylation age was five years older than his or her chronological age, the person’s chance of dying sooner than others without that profile rose 16 percent.
According to the researchers, it may be possible to think of DNA methylation predicted age as an ‘epigenetic clock’ that measures biological age and runs alongside, but not always in parallel with chronological age, and may inform life expectancy predictions.
If so, would you want to know?
The study has been published in Genome Biology, in a paper titled “DNA methylation age of blood predicts all-cause mortality in later life.”
In related research, a new study has found a new link between DNA, which acts like a biological clock, and lung disease. Studying the ends of DNA could predict when people with the disease may die.
