The Pace of Bio-Aging from DNA Methylation
At the recent 2021 Conference on Ending Age-Related Disease, Prof. Daniel Belsky (Columbia U) gave a talk on his work in using DNA methylation information to determine how fast a targeted tissue is aging. He calls it the Dunedin PACE. Belsky's group has also published a paper describing the some aspects of the work.
It has three interesting aspects: (1) the measured quantity is independent of bio-age measured by DNAm, (2) It seems to be more sensitive to anti-aging interventions than does the DNAm epigenetic age, and (3) there is a commercial firm that will measure your DunedinPACE value.
In particular, TruDiagnostics, which performs a DNAm epigenetic age test and analysis for $399 will extract the pace at which your bio-age is changing for an extra $75. I wish it was cheaper, since the main value of the measurement would be to do before-and-after measurements when trying various self-experiments with rapamycin, metformin, GLA, etc.
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Thank you for your post JGC I missed the conference but made sure to be at the coming ARDD2021 next week. I recollect Belsky et al. publishing also a paper comparing different clocks aiming to assess whether or not they measure the same thing. I will re-read the paper you mention (2020) using the Dudenin cohort but I am just curious if you recollect he mentioned something during the conference in relation to using or not chronological age in the various biological age scores determination.
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I re-read the paper. There is a conceptual difference between what we think when we claim measuring biological age at a point in time (aging accumulated), comparing with our chronological age, vs what they measure with theirs "DunedinPoAm" score (pace of aging).
"...DunedinPoAm is qualitatively different from previously published DNA methylation measures of aging that were developed by comparing older individuals to younger ones. Those measures, often referred to as ‘clocks,’ are state measures. They estimate how much aging has occurred in an individual up to the point of measurement. DunedinPoAm is a rate measure. It is based on comparison of longitudinal change over time in 18 biomarkers of organ-system integrity among individuals who are all the same chronological age. DunedinPoAm estimates how fast aging is occurring during the years leading up to the time of measurement. Rather than a clock that records how much time has passed, DunedinPoAm is designed to function as a speedometer, recording how fast the subject is aging..." (bold mine)
The list of biomarkers one can consider (attached) overlaps with that one of several other authors with a new (to me) "gum health" which is interesting. It includes multi organ and functions (hearth, lungs/respiratory, kidney, metabolic, immune, inflammatory, ...).
