That we cannot accurately and robustly measure biological age is a major impediment to the development of rejuvenation therapies. Without the ability to quickly focus on approaches with the largest effects on biological age, the field spends far too much time on marginal classes of therapy, and optimization of any given approach is challenging, haphazard, and slow. The development of aging clocks in recent years is a step in the right direction, but clock data is not trustworthy in the matter of assessing the effects of any given intervention until they are fully calibrated to that intervention via life span studies - which defeats the point of having a fast clock measure. That this is a problem is widely appreciated in the field of aging research, so we might hope that we will see meaningful progress towards reliably and accurate measurement of biological age in the years ahead.
Aging is a major risk factor for numerous chronic diseases and a leading contributor to global mortality. Slowing the rate of aging would have revolutionary implications for health and longevity. A fundamental barrier to achieving this goal, however, is the difficulty of accurately measuring the effects of rejuvenating interventions. The development of precise gerontometric methods, therefore, is a priority for both science and preventive medicine.
metabolomics. Although metabolomic approaches have limited accuracy in determining biological age, the described approach, which averages multiple metabolites from a large metabolomic signature of aging, circumvents this limitation. It allows for measurement of biological age change with an accuracy of approximately one month. Such precision gerontometry enables accelerated testing of candidate anti-aging interventions, helping to eliminate ineffective ones, speed the development of effective ones, and ultimately extend the duration of healthy human life, with profound social and humanitarian benefits.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo16070463
View the full article at FightAging
