Are epigenetic tests accurate?
https://www.mydnage.com/learn/collectionkits
Hi everyone,
I am considering getting my epigenetic age tested via urine sample from the link above and was just wondering whether anybody knows how accurate these tests are?
Is it worth the money to get the test? What do you think?
What's the best company to do it through in your opinion?
Regards,
Joseph
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Hi Joseph, Betteraging has a very interesting article on their website that breaks down this topic exactly, besides being very informative, it is also extremely interesting. https://www.betteraging.com/aging-science/can-epigenetics-tell-us-how-fast-were-aging/
I'm hoping this could help, and good luck.
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I believe index by Elysium is the most accurate as it measures over 100,000 areas of your genome. It was developed by Dr. Levine who is a professor at Yale and Science officer for Elysium. She worked with the Dr. at UCLA who pioneered the epigenetic blood test which measures fewer cites.
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Kathleen Klosterman
I'm not sure that one can judge the accuracy of bio-age measurements done with DNA methylation simply by how many site-methylations are measured. All cells have the same DNA, but they become specialized to become nerve cells or liver cells or heart cells based on how their epigenome is structured, in part by DNA methylation that plays a role in "silencing" unwanted genes. Therefore, every cell type will have a characteristically different DNA methylation pattern.
What Prof. Steve Horvath of UCLA did, using his command of statistics and AI techniques, was to identify that small subset of the measured DNA methylation sites that (a) are common to all or most cell types, and (b) have a significant correlation (positive or negative) with calendar age. He found that 353 methylation sites (out of a much larger number) fulfill these criteria. Most of the DNA methylation has nothing to do with aging.
If you try to increase test accuracy by including more sites, you may be just adding the "noise" of cell-type-dependent methylation to the mix and doing more harm than good. Therefore, just because your test "measures over 100,000 areas", that does not mean that it is necessarily a better test.
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JGC The person who developed my test is Dr. Levine who studied and worked with Dr. Hovarth at UCLA for many years. She has since moved on to Yale and is a chief science officer at Elysium. So, I believe her test best, an improvement over Hovarth's original blood test. But, thanks for your clarification.
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Kathleen Klosterman Confused, I don't understand what your reason is why you think her test is best? Unless you are saying you think her test is best because she works for Yale and Elysium?
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Kathleen Klosterman Guarente is (still?) Elysium's SCO, not Levine.
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Urine is supposedly less accurate than blood or the Index test.
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The point is to have a baseline number and then compare to that baseline number.
So if you obtained the baseline number with urine, then, a year later, get the new numbers with urine.
You can then see if you have any improvement.
If your baseline is from blood, then subsequently, use blood.
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A Feb-2020 interview in LongevityTechnology with Dr. Yap Chew of the DNA methylation testing company myDNAge claims: “The median test error for the original Horvath Clock is 3.6 years. Through our research and development efforts we have improved the median test error of the myDNAge Test age prediction to 1.9 years.”
The original Horvath Clock uses 353 CpG sites, while myDNAge uses more than 2,000 CpG sites. The myDNAge test is a bit pricey, with a cost of $299, and it can use either blood or urine. I guess that's still cheaper than the Elysium Index test, which costs $499, is supposed to use more than 10,000 sites, and makes no explicit statements about its accuracy.
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JGC Yeah, I wonder if more the methylation sites the better? Bioviva just released a new test on a new testing platform that tests over 850,000 sites. Does that make it more accurate? Who knows.
https://bioviva-science.com/products/timekeeper%E2%84%A2-dna-methylation-kit?variant=31445016248368
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I've put together a 1st-try spreadsheet summarizing the commercial DNAm Age testers. They vary wildly in cost and site count. I think Zymo is the standard 2nd gen Horvath DNAm Age test, and the others do their own thing in selecting and weighting CpG sites.
Here's the spreadsheet:
Company Link Sample Type CpG Sites Price EpiAging USA https://epiagingusa.com/ saliva >350 $169.00 myDNAge https://www.mydnage.com/ urine, blood >2000 $299.00 trume https://trumelabs.com/ saliva 9 $99.00 Zymo https://www.zymoresearch.com/ urine, blood >500 $299.00 Elysium https://www.elysiumhealth.com/en-us/index saliva 100,000 $499.00 BioViva https://bioviva-science.com/ saliva 850,000 $457.00 If anyone knows of other commercial DNAm testing companies, (or if the above data needs fixing) let me know, and I'll add it.
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JGC Isn't myDNAge the consumer/retail version of the Zymo test? I.e. Aren't they (supposed to be) identical?
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aribadabar
Zymo and myDNAge do have the same cost, and both offer blood and urine versions. Also, I believe myDNAge was started by a former Zymo person. However, It isn't clear that they are identical or why one would be more "consumer/retail" than the other. The myDNAge website says:
"The myDNAge® Epigenetic Aging Clock service is based on Steve Horvath’s aging clock and utilizes SWARM™ (Simplified Whole-panel Amplification Reaction Method) technology to analyze DNA methylation patterns of >2000 genetic loci and provide epigenetic age predictions in a high throughput manner."
I don't think Horvath ever used >2,000 CpG sites.
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JGC Is there a consumer-oriented DNA methylation service currently offered by Zymo?
The way their website is structured points to submitting an enquiry presumably by a person affiliated with a certain institution and not a retail offering. That's why I described it as such in the previous post.
Right, Horvath does not have a 2000-loci-based clock. MyDNAge formula is "proprietary" and "based" (read: inspired) by Horvath and nothing else. Horvath's clock is using 353 CpG sites so clearly myDNAge are offering something totally different.
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aribadabar
I've had two Zymo tests (one still in progress), but both were arranged for me by Johnny Adams. I'm under the impression that you can set up a Zymo test by making an inquiry, but I've never done it.
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I recently received mydnage results. I am one year older than my calendar age. I did Inner Age with Inside Tracker and was nine years younger. Levine calculator is also nine years younger.
My blood draw for mydnage was 2 weeks after receiving 2nd dose of Covid-19 vaccine. Wondering if that had an impact on results. I also had a beer four hours before drawing blood for mydnage.
Huge discrepancy between the two types of tests. I'll retest with mydnage in another 6 months.
