Measuring Biological Age: Biomarkers, Testing, and the Future of Longevity Medicine

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• Longevity Medicine vs Traditional Healthcare
• Key Hallmarks and Biomarkers of Aging
• Epigenetic Clocks and Biological Age
• The Role of Cellular Senescence
• Implementing Biological Age Testing
• Full Transcript

Longevity Medicine vs Traditional Healthcare

Dr. Andrea Maier, MD, outlines a fundamental shift from reactive to proactive medicine. Traditional healthcare diagnoses diseases only after they occur. Longevity medicine aims to prevent age-related diseases before they start. This new approach focuses on measuring the rate of aging itself. The goal is to intervene early and slow down the biological aging process.

Dr. Anton Titov, MD, explores this concept with Dr. Maier. She emphasizes that this preventative model is not yet standard in health systems. The core of this future medicine is diagnosing an individual's true biological age.

Key Hallmarks and Biomarkers of Aging

Researchers have identified specific biological processes that drive aging. Dr. Andrea Maier, MD, lists several critical hallmarks of aging. Telomere attrition is a primary biomarker. Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes that shorten with each cell division.

Protein misfolding is another significant hallmark. As we age, proteins within our cells do not fold correctly. This leads to a loss of proper cellular function. Dr. Andrea Maier, MD, explains that these processes are measurable indicators of biological age.

Epigenetic Clocks and Biological Age

Epigenetic changes are among the most powerful biomarkers for aging. Dr. Andrea Maier, MD, describes the genome as having a layer on top of it. This epigenetic layer determines which genes are switched on or off. The pattern of these changes is highly predictive of biological age.

Scientists have developed tools called epigenetic clocks to measure this. These clocks analyze DNA methylation patterns to estimate biological age. The difference between this biological age and chronological age is a key metric. Dr. Maier confirms this is a major focus of current research.

The Role of Cellular Senescence

The accumulation of senescent cells is a crucial hallmark of aging. Senescent cells are old, damaged cells that have stopped dividing. Instead of dying, they linger and release harmful inflammatory signals. This process contributes to tissue dysfunction and age-related disease.

Dr. Andrea Maier, MD, includes this in her list of core aging mechanisms. She also mentions somatic genetic mutations. These DNA changes acquired over a lifetime can lead to conditions like cancer. Understanding these hallmarks provides targets for potential interventions.

Implementing Biological Age Testing

A critical question is how often to test your biological age. Dr. Andrea Maier, MD, states that these biomarkers are not yet in common clinical use. The application is currently confined to research settings. The transition to mainstream medicine requires validation and accessible tools.

The conversation with Dr. Anton Titov, MD, highlights the future potential. Regular testing could allow doctors to track the effectiveness of lifestyle or treatment interventions. The ultimate aim is to use this data to personalize preventative health strategies and extend healthspan.

Full Transcript

Dr. Anton Titov, MD: Let's start a discussion with how current healthcare can be updated, perhaps upgraded, to longevity medicine. Can we now diagnose the true biological age of a person? And can we develop interventions to perhaps slow down the aging process?

Dr. Andrea Maier, MD: I would say we can, but we do not do that yet. My background is in internal medicine. I'm an internal medicine specialist, and I am also practicing geriatrics.

What I realized in the last 20 years of being in medical practice is that we diagnose diseases when they occur. However, we could prevent age-related diseases already. I think that's the essence of longevity medicine. We would like to prevent age-related diseases.

This is not yet implemented in current healthcare systems while diagnosing diseases much earlier. But especially we need to target and measure how fast a human being is aging. Most of the time, we do that by measuring the biological age because we know now that the biological age is associated with age-related diseases.

In a nutshell, that is how diagnostics and longevity medicine will function in the future.

Dr. Anton Titov, MD: Well, thank you for this introduction. What are the hallmarks in the biology of aging? Do we have markers of aging right now in humans?

Dr. Andrea Maier, MD: Yes, we have. It is not yet in clinics. Most physicians don't use that in regular clinical practice. But we know why we age. I would say that's a major advantage.

In the last 10 years we understand what is happening at this moment in time with a body affected by time because that's chronological aging. While the time is ticking, our body is exposed to stressors and the external environment. We are eating food. There are many ways how we are aging.

So many researchers discovered the hallmarks of aging. We established what's happening in a cell. Some of these hallmarks are telomere attrition. Telomeres at the end of the genes are becoming shorter.

Our proteins are being folded in cells. With the aging process, proteins created in our cells are malfunctioning, or they are folded differently. There are ways you can imagine that if proteins have not folded well, their function is less.

We have the accumulation of senescence cells. But we also have, for example, genetic mutations occurring during our lifetime, which very often then also leads to cancer. We know more hallmarks of aging now.

That was the discovery of the last the biological age of humans. One of the hallmarks is also epigenetic change. So we have the genome, and there is a layer on top of the genes. That is the epigenetic changes.

The epigenetic makeup in genes will be either switched on or switched off, simplistically saying. While measuring the epigenetic makeup, we can see what the biological age is. We have very nice epigenetic clocks.

There are ways we can determine how old a human being is. So what the difference is with their chronological age? What's given in the passport, and what we are going to apply in clinical care in the future. And what we are applying at the moment in research.