Healthy Aging: 'Gene Signature' Predicts Onset Of Alzheimer's

A team of researchers at the King's College London have discovered a ‘gene signature' that could be used to predict the onset of certain diseases, including Alzheimer's. The findings are published in the journal Genome Biology.

During the study, researchers analyzed the RNA of healthy 65-year-old subjects and used the information to develop signature 150 RNA genes that indicate ‘healthy aging.' The signature showed a reliable predictor for risk of age-related tissues from human brain, skin and muscles. 

Through the RNA signature, they developed a ‘healthy age gene score' that was used to test and compare RNA profiles of different individuals that demonstrated a greater score associated with better health in men and women. Then, they studied RNA from healthy 70-year-olds, analyzing follow-up health data throughout two decades. However, they noticed quite a range in ‘healthy age gene score,' despite age similarity, varying over a four-fold range; a variation that was "linked to long term health and renal function across a 12 year span--both important determinants of mortality."

In particular, for participants diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, they showed an altered ‘healthy aging' RNA signature in their blood levels, resulting in a lower healthy age gene score.

"Our discovery provides the first robust molecular 'signature' of biological age in humans and should be able to transform the way that 'age' is used to make medical decisions," lead author James Timmons, from King's College London, UK, said in a news release. "This includes identifying those more likely to be at risk of Alzheimer's, as catching those at 'early' risk is key to evaluating potential treatments."

"This is the first blood test of its kind that has shown that the same set of molecules are regulated in both the blood and the brain regions associated with dementia, and it can help contribute to a dementia diagnosis. This also provides strong evidence that dementia in humans could be called a type of 'accelerated aging' or 'failure to activate the healthy aging program'."

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