Scientists report that they have developed a genetic test for healthy aging that can predict with 85% accuracy whether a person will live to be XNUMX years old.
Researchers developed an advanced tool based on DNA analysis of centenarians, identifying common genetic variations that could have influenced their longevity.
The accuracy of the test varies from 60 to 85 percent depending on the age of the participant. The older the person is, the more accurate the results are, which means the test is unlikely to be used to predict life expectancy at an early stage. However, testing can help identify specific genes found in long-lived individuals or communities. This would be a valuable application for scientists working on new therapies for aging diseases.
Dr Thomas Perls, one of the project leaders, says: ‘Further analysis will enable us to better understand the genetic and biological determinants of resistance to these types of disease, which translates into a longer life.
Scientists at Boston University developed their research, described in a 2010 article published in Science, but later withdrawn due to data problems. The new report, approved by independent experts at Yale University, also includes research on an additional sample of people with an average age of 107. People who live beyond one hundred years of age are, from a scientific perspective, the ideal model for healthy aging, as they most often do not experience disabilities before their nineties.
Although it is believed that our chances of reaching 85 years of age depend on genetic factors only in 20-30 percent, according to the latest research, these conditions may play a much more important role later in life. Researchers scanned the genomes of 801 people over the age of a hundred and compared them with analogous samples from 914 younger, healthy subjects to identify characteristic DNA fragments common to representatives of the older group.
The researchers identified 281 genetic variations that could influence the aging process, and found that there are 26 distinct ‘genetic signatures’ that occur in 90 percent of the study participants. Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at Kings College London, points out: “This is an interesting analysis carried out on a biologically selected group of people over a hundred years old.” She suggests that genes determine much more whether we will be over the hundred than we will live to 85. Since a huge number of genes are involved, individual predictions will never be accurate. The bottom line is that there is no single gene for aging. There are hundreds of them and we probably inherit some of them in clusters, although we don’t know how they work yet. If we can establish this, the chances of effective anti-aging therapies increase.
Tekst: Nick Collins
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