First actionable clock that predicts immunological health and chronic diseases of aging | Buck Institute for Research on Aging

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July 12, 2021 (MedicalXpress) -- Researchers from the Buck Institute and Stanford University have created an inflammatory clock of aging (iAge) that measures inflammatory load and predicts multi-morbidity, frailty, immune health, cardiovascular aging and is also associated with exceptional longevity in centenarians.

Utilizing deep learning, a form of AI, in studies of the blood immunome of 1001 people, researchers also identified a modifiable chemokine associated with cardiac aging which can be used for early detection of age-related pathology and provides a target for interventions. Results are published in Nature Aging.

"Standard immune metrics which can be used to identify individuals most at risk for developing single or even multiple chronic diseases of aging have been sorely lacking," said David Furman, Ph.D., Buck Institute Associate Professor, Director of the 1001 Immunomes Project at Stanford University School of Medicine and senior author of the study.

"Bringing biology to our completely unbiased approach allowed us to identify a number of metrics, including a small immune protein which is involved in age-related systemic chronic inflammation and cardiac aging," he said. "We now have means of detecting dysfunction and a pathway to intervention before full-blown pathology occurs."

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