Introducing DunedinPoAm: A revolutionary algorithm that can detect current pace of aging by measuring DNA Methylation.
Biological Aging is the gradual, progressive decline in system integrity that occurs over time. When measured by looking at epigenetic markers called Methylation, advanced biological age is linked to morbidity and disability.
Epigenetic methylation measures have been one of the most exciting areas of medicine since 2013, when they first gained notoriety for being the most accurate method to predict biological age.
Since then, our understanding of how to read the data obtained from an individual’s methylation epigenetic has significantly increased. For instance, with the same methylation data, we can now predict the age of the immune system, predict immune cell subsets, and even telomere length in a way that is more accurate and predictive of health outcomes than traditional telomere length measurements.
The latest aging and longevity research finally shows a connection between early-life adversity and later-life disease. Early adversity influences a person’s entire body – down to their gene expression. These aging markers create significant changes to the brain, immune system, and the rest of your body at a deeply fundamental level.
Read the original publication of this study here: [ Quantification of the pace of biological aging in humans through a blood test, the DunedinPoAm DNA methylation algorithm ]
Quantification of the pace of biological aging in humans through a blood test, the DunedinPoAm DNA methylation algorithm
The DunedinPoAm algorithm is a one-of-a-kind algorithm created by researchers from Duke, Columbia, and the University of Otago. Duke professors Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi head a team of six who finished developing the DunedinPoAm tool in 2021.
Building the database took the international team five decades; they tracked biological changes in the bodies of 1037 New Zealanders who are members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a project that began with their birth in 1972.
They first modeled change-over-time in 18 biomarkers tracking organ-system integrity across 12 years of follow-up in members of the Dunedin Study born in 1972–1973. Rates of change in each biomarker over ages 26–38 years were composited to form a measure of aging-related decline, termed Pace-of-Aging.
Unlike biological age clock algorithms, the tool can tell you how you are aging at the precise moment of the test instead of just the overall age of your body. This measurement shows if you are currently implementing the best lifestyle choices to reduce your biological aging and disease risk over time.
The study verified that the people this algorithm identified as aging faster did have a greater long-term risk of poor health, developing chronic diseases, or dying earlier. Similarly, those identified as aging more slowly later performed significantly better on tests of balance, strength, and mental ability. Even being slightly above 1 on this metric increases your risk of death in the next 7 years by 56% and increases your risk of chronic disease diagnosis by 54%.
The new metric is able to measure aging on an individualized and personalized basis. Some patients might have drastically different responses to the same medication. If you give 2 patients an NAD+ precursor, scientists can now tell you which is responding better to the intervention. It leads the way to reduce the risk of developing diseases like Diabetes, COPD, Heart Disease, and Stroke, which those markers predict.
Proof that the DunedinPoAm algorithm works as a single-time-point measure of a person’s pace of biological aging was found during the CALERIE study by Duke University School of Medicine. The investigation involved long-term caloric restriction changing biological age, and pace of aging. Researchers were able to predict an individual’s future rate of biological aging based on current conditions as they progressed through this trial.
Duke University is recognized as one of the nation’s leaders in biomedical research and engineering. This exclusive license opens the door to more opportunities to validate and expand the use of this metric in advanced patient cohorts. Duke University and TruDiagnostic are currently collaborating on grant proposals to validate this algorithm via other tissues.
Takeaways:
- This new DunedinPoAm algorithm can tell you how quickly a person is aging at the time they took the test.
- Experts can now make aging and aging interventions a far more personalized experience.
- Through studies using DunedinPoAm, like the CALERIE study, we know that this algorithm can be a more appropriate method to validate interventions within shorter timeframes.