Towards a biological geriatric assessment

Integrating aging biomarkers and immune function to predict kidney health: insights from the future of families and child wellbeing study

Biomarkers of biological aging predict health outcomes more accurately than chronological age. This study examines the relationship between aging biomarkers, immune function, and kidney health using the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study Biomarker Dataset. Using Wave 5 (year 9) and Wave 6 (year 15), we examined biomarker data from a total of 4898 individuals. The panel of aging biomarkers, comprised of epigenetic clocks (GrimAge, Horvath), immune function markers (CD8 + T cells, plasmablasts), and metabolic indicators (GDF-15, leptin), was evaluated in depth. We used principal component analysis (PCA) and K-means clustering for subtype identification. A random forest regressor was employed to predict kidney function using Cystatin C levels, and the importance of features was assessed. Three clusters with unique biological age and immune function profiles were identified. Cluster 1 had younger biological age markers. In Cluster 2, both GrimAge and GDF-15 levels were significantly increased, indicating an elevated risk for age-related diseases. According to predictive modeling, GrimAge, Pack Years, and immune function markers had the strongest influence on Cystatin C levels (R2 = 0.856). The incorporation of immune aging markers enhanced the predictive power, emphasizing the importance of immunosenescence in renal health. Aging biomarkers and immune function significantly impact kidney health prediction. The study results call for the utilization of extensive biomarker tests for individualized elderly care and early recognition of kidney deterioration. Clinical practice can be improved by incorporating biological age assessments for the prevention and management of age-related diseases.

Value of combining biological age with assessment of individual frailty to optimize management of cancer treated with targeted therapies: model of chronic myeloid leukemia treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BIO-TIMER trial)

BACKGROUND

In the era of targeted therapies, the influence of aging on cancer management varies from one patient to another. Assessing individual frailty using geriatric tools has its limitations, and is not appropriate for all patients especially the youngest one. Thus, assessing the complementary value of a potential biomarker of individual aging is a promising field of investigation. The chronic myeloid leukemia model allows us to address this question with obvious advantages: longest experience in the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, standardization of therapeutic management and response with minimal residual disease and no effect on age-related diseases. Therefore, the aim of the BIO-TIMER study is to assess the biological age of chronic myeloid leukemia or non-malignant cells in patients treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors and to determine its relevance, in association or not with individual frailty to optimize the personalised management of each patient.

METHODS

The BIO-TIMER study is a multi-center, prospective, longitudinal study aiming to evaluate the value of combining biological age determination by DNA methylation profile with individual frailty assessment to personalize the management of chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Blood samples will be collected at diagnosis, 3 months and 12 months after treatment initiation. Individual frailty and quality of life will be assess at diagnosis, 6 months after treatment initiation, and then annually for 3 years. Tolerance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors will also be assessed during the 3-year follow-up. The study plans to recruit 321 patients and recruitment started in November 2023.

DISCUSSION

The assessment of individual frailty should make it possible to personalize the treatment and care of patients. The BIO-TIMER study will provide new data on the role of aging in the management of chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which could influence clinical decision-making.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov , ID NCT06130787; registered on November 14, 2023.

Biomarkers of aging in real life: three questions on aging and the comprehensive geriatric assessment

Measuring intrinsic, biological age is a central question in medicine, which scientists have been trying to answer for decades. Age manifests itself differently in different individuals, and chronological age often does not reflect such heterogeneity of health and function. We discuss here the value of measuring age and aging using the comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA), cornerstone of geriatric medicine, and operationalized assessment tools for prognosis. Specifically, we review the benefits of employing the multidimensional prognostic index (MPI), which collects information about eight domains relevant for the global assessment of the older person (functional and cognitive status, nutrition, mobility and risk of pressure sores, multi-morbidity, polypharmacy, and co-habitation), in the evaluation of the functional status, and in the prediction of health outcomes for older adults. Further integration of biological markers of aging into multidimensional prognostic tools is warranted, as well as actions which could facilitate prognostic assessments for older persons in all healthcare settings.

Clusters of Physical Frailty and Cognitive Impairment and Their Associated Comorbidities in Older Primary Care Patients

(1) Objectives: We aimed to identify clusters of physical frailty and cognitive impairment in a population of older primary care patients and correlate these clusters with their associated comorbidities. (2) Methods: We used a latent class analysis (LCA) as the clustering technique to separate different stages of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and physical frailty into clusters; the differences were assessed by using a multinomial logistic regression model. (3) Results: Four clusters (latent classes) were identified: (1) highly functional (the mean and SD of the “frailty” test 0.58 ± 0.72 and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) test 27.42 ± 1.5), (2) cognitive impairment (0.97 ± 0.78 and 21.94 ± 1.95), (3) cognitive frailty (3.48 ± 1.12 and 19.14 ± 2.30), and (4) physical frailty (3.61 ± 0.77 and 24.89 ± 1.81). (4) Discussion: The comorbidity patterns distinguishing the clusters depend on the degree of development of cardiometabolic disorders in combination with advancing age. The physical frailty phenotype is likely to exist separately from the cognitive frailty phenotype and includes common musculoskeletal diseases.

Incorporating foot assessment in the comprehensive geriatric assessment

Background

Foot problems are common in older adults and associated with poorer physical function, falls, frailty and reduced quality of life. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA), a multidisciplinary process that is considered the gold standard of care for older adults, does not routinely include podiatry assessment and intervention in hospitalized older adults.

Aims

To introduce foot assessment to inpatient CGA to determine prevalence of foot disease, foot disease risk factors and inappropriate footwear use, assess inter-rater reliability of foot assessments, determine current podiatry input and examine associations between patient characteristics and foot disease risks.

Methods

Prospective, observational cohort study of older adults on geriatric rehabilitation wards. Foot assessment completed using the Queensland Foot Disease Form (QFDF) in addition to routine CGA.

Results

Fifty-two patients (median age [inter-quartile range] 86.4 [79.2–90.3] years, 54% female) were included. Six patients (12%) had foot disease and 13 (25%) had a ‘high risk’ or ‘at risk’ foot. Foot disease risk factor prevalence was peripheral arterial disease 9 (17%); neuropathy 10 (19%) and foot deformity 11 (22%). Forty-one patients (85%) wore inappropriate footwear. Inter-rater agreement was substantial on presence of foot disease and arterial disease, fair to moderate on foot deformity and fair on neuropathy and inappropriate footwear. Eight patients (15%) saw a podiatrist during admission: 5 with foot disease, 1 ‘at risk’ and 2 ‘low risk’ for foot disease. Patients with an at risk foot or foot disease had significantly longer median length of hospital stay (25 [13.7–32.1] vs 15.2 [8–22.1] days, p = 0.01) and higher median Malnutrition Screening Test scores (2 [0–3] vs 0 [0–2], p = 0.03) than the low-risk group. Patients with foot disease were most likely to see a podiatrist (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Foot disease, foot disease risk factors and inappropriate footwear are common in hospitalized older adults, however podiatry assessment and intervention is mostly limited to patients with foot disease. Addition of routine podiatry assessment to the multidisciplinary CGA team should be considered. Examination for arterial disease and risk of malnutrition may be useful to identify at risk patients for podiatry review.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-021-02164-3.

Role of motor function and lung function in pathways to ageing and decline

Background

Extensive research has investigated the association between age changes in various domains, including lung function and motor function. However, a few analyses have tested models that incorporate bidirectional longitudinal influences between lung and motor function to test the temporal chain of events in the disability process. Dual change score models (DCSM) assist with identification of leading indicators of change by leveraging longitudinal data to examine the extent to which changes in one variable influence subsequent changes in a second variable, and vice versa.

Aims

The purpose of the current-analysis study was to apply DCSM to data from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of ageing to examine the nature of the longitudinal relationship between motor functioning and lung function.

Methods

Three motor functioning factors were created from 20 performance measures, including measures of balance, flexibility, and fine motor skills. Peak expiratory flow measured lung function. Participants were 829 adults aged 50–88 at the first of 9 waves of testing covering a 27-year follow-up period; 80% participated in at least three waves.

Results

Model comparisons indicated that decline in lung function preceded and contributed to subsequent decline in motor function.

Discussion

Combined with previous results, these results suggest that declining lung function results in increasing difficulties in motor function, which contribute to subsequent declines in multiple domains.

Conclusion

Understanding the cascade of events that can lead to dependence can help in the development of interventions targeted early in the disablement process.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1007/s40520-020-01494-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Frailty, a multisystem ageing syndrome

The management of frail older people is a key component of aged care. There has been a plethora of tools developed for the diagnosis and screening of frailty. Some of these tools are entering routine clinical practice at a time when the higher healthcare costs involved in caring for older people who are frail have become a potential target for cost-cutting. Yet there is still only limited evidence to support the widespread adoption of frailty tools, and foundational factors impact on their accuracy and validity. Despite the acceptance of frailty as a valid term in research and clinical practice, older people believe the term carries stigma. Such issues indicate that there may be a need to reconsider current approaches to frailty. Recent advances in the science of ageing biology can provide a new framework for reconfiguring how we screen, diagnose, treat and prevent frailty. Frailty can be considered to be a multisystem ageing syndrome of decreased physiological and functional reserve, where the biological changes of ageing are seen in most tissues and organs and are the pathogenic mechanism for frailty. Likewise age-related chronic disease and multimorbidity are syndromes where ageing changes occur in one or multiple systems, respectively. This model focusses diagnostic criteria for frailty onto the biomarkers of ageing and generates new targets for the prevention and treatment of frailty based on interventions that influence ageing biology.

Premature Aging in Young Cancer Survivors

Advances in early detection, treatment, and supportive care have resulted in an estimated 16 million cancer survivors who are alive in the United States today. Outcomes have notably improved for children with cancer as well as young adults with hematologic malignancies due, in part, to the intensification of cancer treatment, including the use of hematopoietic cell transplantation. Emerging evidence suggests that these cancer survivors are at risk for premature aging, manifesting as early onset of chronic health conditions and a higher risk of mortality compared with the general population. Although the pathophysiology of premature aging in these survivors has not been fully elucidated, emerging concepts in aging research could help shed light on this phenomenon. Longitudinal studies are needed to better characterize aging in these survivors, setting the stage for much-needed interventions to halt the trajectory of accelerated aging. These efforts will be enhanced through collaborations between translational researchers, clinical oncologists, primary care providers, geriatricians, patient caretakers, and other stakeholders committed to improving the lives of the growing population of survivors.

Age-Related DNA Methylation Changes: Potential Impact on Skeletal Muscle Aging in Humans

Human aging is accompanied by a decline in muscle mass and muscle function, which is commonly referred to as sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is associated with detrimental clinical outcomes, such as a reduced quality of life, frailty, an increased risk of falls, fractures, hospitalization, and mortality. The exact underlying mechanisms of sarcopenia are poorly delineated and the molecular mechanisms driving the development and progression of this disorder remain to be uncovered. Previous studies have described age-related differences in gene expression, with one study identifying an age-specific expression signature of sarcopenia, but little is known about the influence of epigenetics, and specially of DNA methylation, in its pathogenesis. In this review, we will focus on the available knowledge in literature on the characterization of DNA methylation profiles during skeletal muscle aging and the possible impact of physical activity and nutrition. We will consider the possible use of the recently developed DNA methylation-based biomarkers of aging called epigenetic clocks in the assessment of physical performance in older individuals. Finally, we will discuss limitations and future directions of this field.

Developments in molecular epidemiology of aging

The field of molecular epidemiology of aging involves the application of molecular methods to measure aging processes and their genetic determinants in human cohorts. Over the last decade, the field has undergone rapid progress with a dramatic increase in the number of papers published. The aim of this review is to give an overview of the research field, with a specific focus on new developments, opportunities, and challenges.

Aging occurs at multiple hierarchical levels. There is increasing consensus that aging-related changes at the molecular level cause declines in physiological integrity, functional capacity, and ultimately lifespan. Molecular epidemiology studies seek to quantify this process. Telomere length, composite scores integrating clinical biomarkers, and omics clocks are among the most well-studied metrics in molecular epidemiology studies.

New developments in the field include bigger data and hypothesis-free analysis together with new modes of collaborations in interdisciplinary teams and open access norms around data sharing. Key challenges facing the field are the lack of a gold standard by which to evaluate molecular measures of aging, inconsistency in which metrics of aging are measured and analyzed across studies, and a need for more longitudinal data necessary to observe change over time.

The many ages of man: diverse approaches to assessing ageing-related biological and psychological measures and their relationship to chronological age

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Chronological age is a crude measure and may not be the best indicator of the ageing process. Establishing valid and reliable biomarkers to understand the true effect of ageing is of great interest. We provide an overview of biological and psychological characteristics that change with age and can potentially serve as markers of the ageing process, and discuss if an integration of these characteristics may more accurately measure the true age of a person. We also describe the clinicopathological continuum of these ageing-related changes.

RECENT FINDINGS

Ageing-related changes in the biological and psychological systems of the body have been studied to varying degrees and with differing emphases. Despite the development of ageing indices, there is no single indicator that can holistically estimate the ageing process. Differential ageing of bodily systems remains poorly understood, and valid methods have not been developed for composite markers of biological and psychological processes.

SUMMARY

The ageing process is complex and heterogeneous. Incorporating biological and psychological measures may improve accuracy in reflecting an individual's 'true age,' and elucidate why some people age successfully, whereas others show ageing-related decline and disease.