1 6017 177 THE ASSOCIATION OF ACCELERATED EPIGENETIC AGE WITH ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY IN CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION PATIENTS AS MEDIATED BY VASCULAR AND CARDIOMETABOLIC OUTCOMES. BACKGROUND: EPIGENETIC AGE IS A DNA METHYLATION-BASED BIOMARKER OF AGING THAT IS ACCURATE ACROSS THE LIFESPAN AND A RANGE OF CELL TYPES. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EPIGENETIC AGE AND CHRONOLOGICAL AGE, TERMED AGE ACCELERATION (AA), IS A STRONG PREDICTOR OF LIFESPAN AND HEALTHSPAN. THE PREDICTIVE CAPABILITIES OF AA FOR ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY HAVE BEEN EVALUATED IN THE GENERAL POPULATION; HOWEVER, ITS UTILITY IS LESS WELL EVALUATED IN THOSE WITH CHRONIC CONDITIONS. ADDITIONALLY, THE PATHOPHYSIOLOGIC PATHWAYS WHEREBY AA PREDICTS MORTALITY ARE UNCLEAR. WE HYPOTHESIZED THAT AA PREDICTS MORTALITY IN INDIVIDUALS WITH UNDERLYING CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE; AND THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN AA AND MORTALITY IS MEDIATED, IN PART, BY VASCULAR AND CARDIOMETABOLIC MEASURES. METHODS: WE EVALUATED 562 PARTICIPANTS IN AN URBAN, THREE-COUNTY AREA OF CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA FROM THE CATHGEN COHORT, ALL OF WHOM RECEIVED A CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION PROCEDURE. WE ANALYZED THREE AA BIOMARKERS, HORVATH EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION (HAA), PHENOTYPIC AGE ACCELERATION (PHENOAA), AND GRIM AGE ACCELERATION (GRIMAA), BY COX REGRESSION MODELS, TO ASSESS WHETHER AAS WERE ASSOCIATED WITH ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY. WE ALSO EVALUATED IF THESE ASSOCIATIONS WERE MEDIATED BY VASCULAR AND CARDIOMETABOLIC OUTCOMES, INCLUDING LEFT VENTRICULAR EJECTION FRACTION (LVEF), BLOOD CHOLESTEROL CONCENTRATIONS, ANGIOPOIETIN-2 (ANG2) PROTEIN CONCENTRATION, PERIPHERAL ARTERY DISEASE, CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE, DIABETES, AND HYPERTENSION. THE TOTAL EFFECT, DIRECT EFFECT, INDIRECT EFFECT, AND PERCENTAGE MEDIATED WERE ESTIMATED USING PATHWAY MEDIATION TESTS WITH A REGRESSION ADJUSTMENT APPROACH. RESULTS: PHENOAA (HR = 1.05, P < 0.0001), GRIMAA (HR = 1.10, P < 0.0001) AND HAA (HR = 1.03, P = 0.01) WERE ALL ASSOCIATED WITH ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY. THE ASSOCIATION OF MORTALITY AND PHENOAA WAS PARTIALLY MEDIATED BY ANG2, A MARKER OF VASCULAR FUNCTION (19.8%, P = 0.016), AND BY DIABETES (8.2%, P = 0.043). THE GRIMAA-MORTALITY ASSOCIATION WAS MEDIATED BY ANG2 (12.3%, P = 0.014), AND SHOWED WEAKER EVIDENCE FOR MEDIATION BY LVEF (5.3%, P = 0.065). CONCLUSIONS: EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION REMAINS STRONGLY PREDICTIVE OF MORTALITY EVEN IN INDIVIDUALS ALREADY BURDENED WITH CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE. MORTALITY ASSOCIATIONS WERE MEDIATED BY ANG2, WHICH REGULATES ENDOTHELIAL PERMEABILITY AND ANGIOGENIC FUNCTIONS, SUGGESTING THAT SPECIFIC VASCULAR PATHOPHYSIOLOGY MAY LINK ACCELERATED EPIGENETIC AGING WITH INCREASED MORTALITY RISKS.	2022	
                                                                                                                                              
2 3568  42 IMPACT OF INFLAMMATION ON EPIGENETIC DNA METHYLATION - A NOVEL RISK FACTOR FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE? OBJECTIVE: THE LIFESPAN OF DIALYSIS PATIENTS IS AS SHORT AS IN PATIENTS WITH METASTATIC CANCER DISEASE, MAINLY DUE TO CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE (CVD). DNA METHYLATION IS AN IMPORTANT CELLULAR MECHANISM MODULATING GENE EXPRESSION ASSOCIATED WITH AGEING, INFLAMMATION AND ATHEROSCLEROTIC PROCESSES. DESIGN: DNA METHYLATION WAS ANALYSED IN PERIPHERAL BLOOD LEUCOCYTES FROM THREE DIFFERENT GROUPS OF CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE (CKD) POPULATIONS (37 CKD STAGES 3 AND 4 PATIENTS, 98 CKD STAGE 5 PATIENTS AND 20 PREVALENT HAEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS). THIRTY-SIX HEALTHY SUBJECTS SERVED AS CONTROLS. CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS (DIABETES MELLITUS, NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND PRESENCE OF CLINICAL CVD), INFLAMMATION AND OXIDATIVE STRESS BIOMARKERS, HOMOCYSTEINE AND GLOBAL DNA METHYLATION IN PERIPHERAL BLOOD LEUCOCYTES (DEFINED AS HPAII/MSPI RATIO BY THE LUMINOMETRIC METHYLATION ASSAY METHOD) WERE EVALUATED. CKD STAGE 5 PATIENTS (N=98) STARTING DIALYSIS TREATMENT WERE FOLLOWED FOR A PERIOD OF 36 +/- 2 MONTHS. RESULTS: INFLAMED PATIENTS HAD LOWER RATIOS OF HPAII/MSPI, INDICATING GLOBAL DNA HYPERMETHYLATION. ANALYSIS BY THE COX REGRESSION MODEL DEMONSTRATED THAT DNA HYPERMETHYLATION (HPAII/MSPI RATIO <MEDIAN) WAS SIGNIFICANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH BOTH ALL-CAUSE (RR 5.0; 95% CI: 1.7-14.8; P<0.01) AND CARDIOVASCULAR (RR 13.9; 95% CI: 1.8-109.3; P<0.05) MORTALITY, EVEN FOLLOWING THE ADJUSTMENT FOR AGE, CVD, DIABETES MELLITUS AND INFLAMMATION. CONCLUSION: THE PRESENT STUDY DEMONSTRATES THAT GLOBAL DNA HYPERMETHYLATION IS ASSOCIATED WITH INFLAMMATION AND INCREASED MORTALITY IN CKD.	2007	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
3  177  32 ACCELERATED EPIGENETIC AGING AND INFLAMMATORY/IMMUNOLOGICAL PROFILE (IPAGE) IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE. CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE (CKD) IS DEFINED BY A REDUCED ESTIMATED GLOMERULAR FILTRATION RATE (EGFR). THIS FAILURE CAN BE RELATED TO A PHENOTYPE OF ACCELERATED AGING. IN THIS WORK, WE CONSIDERED 76 PATIENTS WITH END-STAGE RENAL DISEASE (ESRD) AND 83 HEALTHY CONTROLS. WE CONCOMITANTLY EVALUATED FOR THE FIRST TIME TWO MEASURES THAT CAN BE INFORMATIVE OF THE RATE OF AGING, I.E., WHOLE BLOOD DNA METHYLATION USING THE ILLUMINA INFINIUM EPIC ARRAY AND PLASMA LEVELS OF A SELECTION OF INFLAMMATORY/IMMUNOLOGICAL PROTEINS USING MULTIPLEX IMMUNOASSAYS. FIRST OF ALL, WE DEMONSTRATED ACCELERATED AGING IN TERMS OF THE MOST COMMON EPIGENETIC AGE ESTIMATORS IN CKD PATIENTS. MOREOVER, WE DEVELOPED A NEW CLOCK/PREDICTOR OF AGE BASED ON THE INFLAMMATORY/IMMUNOLOGICAL PROFILE (IPAGE) AND IDENTIFIED THE INFLAMMATORY/IMMUNOLOGICAL BIOMARKERS DIFFERENTIALLY EXPRESSED BETWEEN CASES AND CONTROLS. IPAGE APPEARED TO BE MORE SENSITIVE THAN EPIGENETIC CLOCKS IN QUANTIFYING THE ACCELERATED AGING PHENOTYPE OF ESRD PATIENTS. INTERESTINGLY, WE DID NOT FIND ANY CORRELATION BETWEEN THE AGE ACCELERATION EVALUATED ACCORDING TO THE EPIGENETIC CLOCKS AND IPAGE IN EITHER THE ESRD GROUP OR THE CONTROL GROUP. ON THE WHOLE, OUR DATA SHOW A CONSISTENT ACCELERATED AGING PHENOTYPE IN ESRD PATIENTS, WHICH IS BETTER APPRECIATED BY QUANTIFYING THE UNDERLYING INFLAMMATORY PROCESSES (INFLAMMAGING) BY IPAGE THAN BY USING EPIGENETIC CLOCKS.	2022	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
4 4024  42 LUNG ALLOGRAFT EPITHELIUM DNA METHYLATION AGE IS ASSOCIATED WITH GRAFT CHRONOLOGIC AGE AND PRIMARY GRAFT DYSFUNCTION. ADVANCED DONOR AGE IS A RISK FACTOR FOR POOR SURVIVAL FOLLOWING LUNG TRANSPLANTATION. HOWEVER, RECENT WORK IDENTIFYING EPIGENETIC DETERMINANTS OF AGING HAS SHOWN THAT BIOLOGIC AGE MAY NOT ALWAYS REFLECT CHRONOLOGIC AGE AND THAT STRESSORS CAN ACCELERATE BIOLOGIC AGING. WE HYPOTHESIZED THAT LUNG ALLOGRAFTS THAT EXPERIENCED PRIMARY GRAFT DYSFUNCTION (PGD), CHARACTERIZED BY POOR OXYGENATION IN THE FIRST THREE POST-TRANSPLANT DAYS, WOULD HAVE INCREASED BIOLOGIC AGE. WE CULTURED AIRWAY EPITHELIAL CELLS ISOLATED BY TRANSBRONCHIAL BRUSH AT 1-YEAR BRONCHOSCOPIES FROM 13 SUBJECTS WITH SEVERE PGD AND 15 CONTROLS MATCHED ON AGE AND TRANSPLANT INDICATION. WE MEASURED EPIGENETIC AGE USING THE HORVATH EPIGENETIC CLOCK. LINEAR MODELS WERE USED TO DETERMINE THE ASSOCIATION OF AIRWAY EPIGENETIC AGE WITH CHRONOLOGIC AGES AND PGD STATUS, ADJUSTED FOR RECIPIENT PGD RISK FACTORS. SURVIVAL MODELS ASSESSED THE ASSOCIATION WITH CHRONIC LUNG ALLOGRAFT DYSFUNCTION (CLAD) OR DEATH. DISTRIBUTIONS OF PROMOTER METHYLATION WITHIN PATHWAYS WERE COMPARED BETWEEN GROUPS. DNA METHYLTRANSFERASE (DNMT) ACTIVITY WAS QUANTIFIED IN AIRWAY EPITHELIAL CELLS UNDER HYPOXIC OR NORMOXIC CONDITIONS. AIRWAY EPIGENETIC AGE APPEARED YOUNGER BUT WAS STRONGLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE AGE OF THE ALLOGRAFT (SLOPE 0.38 PER YEAR, 95% CI 0.27-0.48). THERE WAS NO CORRELATION BETWEEN EPIGENETIC AGE AND RECIPIENT AGE (P = 0.96). EPIGENETIC AGE WAS 6.5 YEARS GREATER (95% CI 1.7-11.2) IN SUBJECTS WHO HAD EXPERIENCED PGD, AND THIS EFFECT REMAINED SIGNIFICANT AFTER ADJUSTING FOR DONOR AND RECIPIENT CHARACTERISTICS (P = 0.03). EPIGENETIC AGE WAS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH CLAD-FREE SURVIVAL RISK (P = 0.11). ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENTIAL METHYLATION OF PROMOTERS OF KEY BIOLOGIC PATHWAYS REVEALED HYPOMETHYLATION IN REGIONS RELATED TO HYPOXIA, INFLAMMATION, AND METABOLISM-ASSOCIATED PATHWAYS. ACCORDINGLY, AIRWAY EPITHELIAL CELLS CULTURED IN HYPOXIC CONDITIONS SHOWED SUPPRESSED DNMT ACTIVITY. WHILE AIRWAY METHYLATION AGE WAS PRIMARILY DETERMINED BY DONOR CHRONOLOGIC AGE, EARLY INJURY IN THE FORM OF PGD WAS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED ALLOGRAFT EPIGENETIC AGE. THESE DATA SHOW HOW PGD MIGHT SUPPRESS KEY PROMOTER METHYLATION RESULTING IN LONG-TERM IMPACTS ON THE ALLOGRAFT.	2021	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
5 4502  48 MORTALITY ASSOCIATIONS WITH DNA METHYLATION-BASED BIOLOGICAL AGING AND PHYSICAL FUNCTIONING MEASURES ACROSS A 20-YEAR FOLLOW-UP PERIOD. BACKGROUND: MEASURES OF BIOLOGICAL AGING RANGE FROM DNA METHYLATION (DNAM)-BASED ESTIMATES TO MEASURES OF PHYSICAL ABILITIES. THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO COMPARE DNAM- AND PHYSICAL FUNCTIONING-BASED MEASURES OF BIOLOGICAL AGING IN PREDICTING MORTALITY. METHODS: WE STUDIED 63- TO 76-YEAR-OLD WOMEN (N = 395) FROM THE FINNISH TWIN STUDY ON AGING (FITSA). PARTICIPANTS' BIOLOGICAL AGE (EPIGENETIC CLOCKS DNAM GRIMAGE AND DUNEDINPACE) WAS ESTIMATED USING BLOOD DNAM DATA. TESTS OF PHYSICAL FUNCTIONING CONDUCTED UNDER STANDARDIZED LABORATORY CONDITIONS INCLUDED THE TIMED UP AND GO (TUG) TEST AND 10-M WALK TEST. MORTALITY HAZARD RATIOS WERE CALCULATED PER EVERY 1 STANDARD DEVIATION (SD) INCREASE IN THE PREDICTOR. COX REGRESSION MODELS WERE CONDUCTED FOR INDIVIDUALS AND TWIN PAIRS, THE LATTER CONTROLLING FOR UNDERLYING GENETIC EFFECTS. THE MODELS WERE ADJUSTED FOR KNOWN LIFESTYLE PREDICTORS OF MORTALITY. RESULTS: DURING THE FOLLOW-UP PERIOD (MEAN 17.0 YEARS, RANGE 0.2-20.3), 187 PARTICIPANTS DIED. IN BOTH THE INDIVIDUAL-BASED AND PAIRWISE ANALYSES, GRIMAGE AND BOTH FUNCTIONAL BIOMARKERS OF AGING WERE ASSOCIATED WITH MORTALITY INDEPENDENT OF FAMILY RELATEDNESS, CHRONOLOGICAL AGE, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, BODY MASS INDEX, SMOKING, EDUCATION, OR CHRONIC DISEASES. IN A MODEL INCLUDING BOTH THE DNAM-BASED MEASURES AND FUNCTIONAL BIOMARKERS OF AGING, GRIMAGE AND TUG REMAINED PREDICTIVE. CONCLUSIONS: THE FINDINGS SUGGEST THAT DNAM GRIMAGE AND THE TUG TEST ARE STRONG PREDICTORS OF MORTALITY INDEPENDENT OF EACH OTHERS AND GENETIC INFLUENCES. DNAM-BASED MEASURES AND FUNCTIONAL TESTS CAPTURE DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE AGING PROCESS AND THUS COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER AS MEASURES OF BIOLOGICAL AGING IN PREDICTING MORTALITY.	2023	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
6  501  50 ASSOCIATION OF ACCELEROMETER-MEASURED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SEDENTARY TIME WITH EPIGENETIC MARKERS OF AGING. INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE: PHYSICAL ACTIVITY MAY INFLUENCE CHRONIC DISEASE RISK, IN PART, THROUGH EPIGENETIC MECHANISMS. PREVIOUS STUDIES HAVE DEMONSTRATED THAT AN ACUTE BOUT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY CAN INFLUENCE DNA METHYLATION STATUS. FEW STUDIES HAVE EXPLORED THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HABITUAL, ACCELEROMETER-MEASURED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY OR SEDENTARY TIME WITH EPIGENETIC MARKERS OF AGING. METHODS: WE USED LINEAR REGRESSION TO EXAMINE CROSS-SECTIONAL ASSOCIATIONS OF ACCELEROMETER-MEASURED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SEDENTARY TIME WITH EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION (EEAA AND IEAA) MODELS AND GRIMAGE MEASURED FROM BLOOD SAMPLES FROM FRAMINGHAM HEART STUDY PARTICIPANTS WITH ACCELEROMETRY AND DNA METHYLATION DATA ( N = 2435; MEAN AGE, 54.9 +/- 14.3; 46.0% MEN). RESIDUALS OF HANNUM-, HORVATH-, AND GRIMAGE-PREDICTED EPIGENETIC AGE WERE CALCULATED BY REGRESSING EPIGENETIC AGE ON CHRONOLOGICAL AGE. WE TOOK INTO ACCOUNT BLOOD CELL COMPOSITION FOR EEAA, IEAA, AND ADJGRIMAGE. MODERATE TO VIGOROUS PHYSICAL ACTIVITY WAS LOG-TRANSFORMED TO NORMALIZE ITS DISTRIBUTION. ADJUSTMENT MODELS ACCOUNTED FOR FAMILY STRUCTURE, AGE, SEX, SMOKING STATUS, COHORT-LABORATORY INDICATOR, AND ACCELEROMETER WEAR TIME. WE ADDITIONALLY EXPLORED ADJUSTMENT FOR BODY MASS INDEX (BMI). RESULTS: WALKING 1500 MORE STEPS PER DAY OR SPENDING 3 FEWER HOURS SEDENTARY WAS ASSOCIATED WITH >10 MONTHS LOWER GRIMAGE BIOLOGICAL AGE (OR ~1 MONTH LOWER ADJGRIMAGE, AFTER ADJUSTING FOR BLOOD CELLS, P < 0.05). EVERY 5 MIN.D -1 MORE MODERATE TO VIGOROUS PHYSICAL ACTIVITY WAS ASSOCIATED WITH 19-79 D OF LOWER GRIMAGE (4-23 D LOWER USING EEAA OR ADJGRIMAGE, P < 0.01). ADJUSTING FOR BMI ATTENUATED THESE RESULTS, BUT ALL STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT ASSOCIATIONS WITH ADJGRIMAGE REMAINED. CONCLUSIONS: GREATER HABITUAL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND LOWER SEDENTARY TIME WERE ASSOCIATED WITH LOWER EPIGENETIC AGE, WHICH WAS PARTIALLY EXPLAINED BY BMI. FURTHER RESEARCH SHOULD EXPLORE WHETHER CHANGES IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY INFLUENCE METHYLATION STATUS AND WHETHER THOSE MODIFICATIONS INFLUENCE CHRONIC DISEASE RISK.	2023	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
7  175  33 ACCELERATED AGING WITH HIV BEGINS AT THE TIME OF INITIAL HIV INFECTION. LIVING WITH HIV INFECTION IS ASSOCIATED WITH EARLY ONSET OF AGING-RELATED CHRONIC CONDITIONS, SOMETIMES DESCRIBED AS ACCELERATED AGING. EPIGENETIC DNA METHYLATION PATTERNS CAN EVALUATE ACCELERATION OF BIOLOGICAL AGE RELATIVE TO CHRONOLOGICAL AGE. THE IMPACT OF INITIAL HIV INFECTION ON FIVE EPIGENETIC MEASURES OF AGING WAS EXAMINED BEFORE AND APPROXIMATELY 3 YEARS AFTER HIV INFECTION IN THE SAME INDIVIDUALS (N=102). SIGNIFICANT EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION (MEDIAN 1.9-4.8 YEARS) AND ESTIMATED TELOMERE LENGTH SHORTENING (ALL P</= 0.001) WERE OBSERVED FROM PRE-TO POST-HIV INFECTION, AND REMAINED SIGNIFICANT IN THREE EPIGENETIC MEASURES AFTER CONTROLLING FOR T CELL CHANGES. NO ACCELERATION WAS SEEN IN AGE- AND TIME INTERVAL-MATCHED HIV-UNINFECTED CONTROLS. CHANGES IN GENOME-WIDE CO-METHYLATION CLUSTERS WERE ALSO SIGNIFICANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH INITIAL HIV INFECTION (P</= 2.0 X 10(-4)). THESE LONGITUDINAL OBSERVATIONS CLEARLY DEMONSTRATE AN EARLY AND SUBSTANTIAL IMPACT OF HIV INFECTION ON THE EPIGENETIC AGING PROCESS, AND SUGGEST A ROLE FOR HIV ITSELF IN THE EARLIER ONSET OF CLINICAL AGING.	2022	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
8 1962  46 EPIGENETIC AGING IS ASSOCIATED WITH CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PAIN IN COMMUNITY-DWELLING OLDER ADULTS. GERONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH REVEALS CONSIDERABLE INTERINDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY IN AGING PHENOTYPES, WHICH HAS MOTIVATED RESEARCH EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY "AGING BIOMARKERS." AGING BIOMARKERS ARE USED TO CALCULATE BIOLOGICAL AGE, WHICH ARE BETTER PREDICTORS OF DISEASE RISK AND RESIDUAL LIFESPAN WHEN COMPARED TO CHRONOLOGICAL AGE ALONE. EMERGING EVIDENCE USING THE EPIGENETIC CLOCK AS AN AGING BIOMARKER SUPPORTS HIGHLY RELIABLE INDIVIDUALIZED PREDICTIONS ABOUT FUTURE HEALTH. THIS STUDY AIMED TO DETERMINE WHETHER AN EPIGENETIC AGING BIOMARKER WAS ASSOCIATED WITH CHRONIC PAIN IN OLDER ADULTS (60-83 YEARS OLD). A SUBSET OF PARTICIPANTS (N = 29) IN THE NEUROMODULATORY EXAMINATION OF PAIN AND MOBILITY ACROSS THE LIFESPAN STUDY UNDERWENT A BLOOD DRAW, DEMOGRAPHIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL, COGNITIVE, AND PAIN ASSESSMENTS. WE ESTIMATED HORVATH'S EPIGENETIC CLOCK AND CALCULATED THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EPIGENETIC AGE AND CHRONOLOGICAL AGE THAT HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY REPORTED TO PREDICT OVERALL MORTALITY RISK. OLDER INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT CHRONIC PAIN (N = 9) HAD SIGNIFICANTLY "YOUNGER" EPIGENETIC AGE COMPARED TO THOSE WITH CHRONIC PAIN (N = 20, P < 0.05). OLDER EPIGENETIC AGE WAS ASSOCIATED WITH GREATER PAIN DURING DAILY ACTIVITIES (R = 0.494, P = 0.010) AND ANATOMICAL PAIN SITES (R = 0.741, P < 0.001) BUT NOT PAIN FREQUENCY/DURATION. AN OLDER EPIGENETIC AGE WAS ALSO ASSOCIATED WITH HIGHER VIBRATORY DETECTION THRESHOLDS (R = 0.490, P = 0.021), HEAT PAIN THRESHOLDS (R = -0.478, P = 0.028), AND PRESSURE PAIN THRESHOLDS AT THE TRAPEZIUS (R = -0.571, P = 0.006) BUT NOT THERMAL DETECTION, PRESSURE PAIN AT THE QUADRICEPS OR PAIN INHIBITION (P'S > 0.05). EPIGENETIC AGING WAS ASSOCIATED WITH GREATER EMOTIONAL STABILITY (R = -0.461, P = 0.027), CONSCIENTIOUSNESS (R = -0.549, P = 0.007), AND LOWER EXTRAVERSION (R = 0.414, P = 0.049) BUT NOT DEPRESSION OR AFFECT (P'S > 0.05). EPIGENETIC AGING WAS ALSO ASSOCIATED WITH LOWER EPISODIC (R = -0.698, P = 0.001) AND WORKING MEMORY (R = -0.760, P < 0.001). OUR FINDINGS SUGGEST THAT CHRONIC PAIN IS ASSOCIATED WITH ACCELERATED EPIGENETIC AGING IN HEALTHY, COMMUNITY-DWELLING OLDER INDIVIDUALS, AND FUTURE STUDIES WITH LARGER SAMPLES ARE NEEDED TO CONFIRM OUR FINDINGS. AN AGING BIOMARKER SUCH AS THE EPIGENETIC CLOCK MAY HELP IDENTIFY PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC PAIN AT GREATER RISK OF FUNCTIONAL DECLINE AND POORER HEALTH OUTCOMES.	2019	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
9 1782  52 EFFECT OF A 3-WEEK MULTIDISCIPLINARY BODY WEIGHT REDUCTION PROGRAM ON THE EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION IN OBESE ADULTS. OBESITY AND AGING SHARE COMMON MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR MECHANISMS UNDERLYING THE PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES (CVD), WHICH OCCUR FREQUENTLY IN BOTH CONDITIONS. DNA METHYLATION (DNAM) AGE, A BIOMARKER OF THE EPIGENETIC CLOCK, HAS BEEN PROPOSED AS A MORE ACCURATE PREDICTOR OF BIOLOGICAL AGING THAN CHRONOLOGICAL AGE. A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN INDIVIDUAL'S CHRONOLOGICAL AGE AND DNAM AGE IS REFERRED TO AS EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PRESENT STUDY WAS TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTS OF A 3-WEEK IN-HOSPITAL BODY WEIGHT REDUCTION PROGRAM (BWRP) ON THE EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION, AS WELL AS ON OTHER CARDIOMETABOLIC OUTCOMES, IN A COHORT OF 72 OBESE ADULTS (F/M: 43/29; (CHRONOLOGICAL) AGE: 51.5 +/- 14.5 YRS; BMI: 46.5 +/- 6.3 KG/M2). AT THE END OF THE BWRP, WHEN CONSIDERING THE ENTIRE POPULATION, BMI DECREASED, AND CHANGES IN BODY COMPOSITION WERE OBSERVED. THE BWRP ALSO PRODUCED BENEFICIAL METABOLIC EFFECTS AS DEMONSTRATED BY DECREASES IN GLUCOSE, INSULIN, HOMA-IR, TOTAL CHOLESTEROL, AND LDL CHOLESTEROL. A POST-BWRP IMPROVEMENT IN CARDIOVASCULAR FUNCTION WAS ALSO EVIDENT (I.E., DECREASES IN SYSTOLIC AND DIASTOLIC BLOOD PRESSURES AND HEART RATE). THE BWRP REDUCED SOME MARKERS OF SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION, PARTICULARLY C-REACTIVE PROTEIN (CRP). FINALLY, VASCULAR AGE (VA) AND FRAMINGHAM RISK SCORE (FRS) WERE REDUCED AFTER THE BWRP. WHEN CONSIDERING THE ENTIRE POPULATION, DNAM AGE AND EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION DID NOT DIFFER AFTER THE BWRP. HOWEVER, WHEN SUBDIVIDING THE POPULATION INTO TWO GROUPS BASED ON EACH SUBJECT'S EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION (I.E., </=0 YRS OR >0 YRS), THE BWRP REDUCED THE EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION ONLY IN OBESE SUBJECTS WITH A VALUE > 0 YRS (THUS BIOLOGICALLY OLDER THAN EXPECTED). AMONG ALL THE SINGLE DEMOGRAPHIC, LIFESTYLE, BIOCHEMICAL, AND CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS INVESTIGATED, ONLY SOME MARKERS OF SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION, SUCH AS CRP, WERE ASSOCIATED WITH THE EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION. MOREOVER, CHRONOLOGICAL AGE WAS CORRELATED WITH DNAM AGE AND VA; FINALLY, THERE WAS A CORRELATION BETWEEN DNAM AGE AND VA. IN CONCLUSION, A 3-WEEK BWRP IS CAPABLE OF REDUCING THE EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION IN OBESE ADULTS, BEING THE BWRP-INDUCED REJUVENATION EVIDENT IN SUBJECTS WITH AN EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION > 0 YRS. BASED ON THE BWRP-INDUCED DECREASE IN CRP LEVELS, CHRONIC SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION SEEMS TO PLAY A ROLE IN MEDIATING OBESITY-RELATED EPIGENETIC REMODELING AND BIOLOGICAL AGING. THUS, DUE TO THE STRONG ASSOCIATION OF CVD RISK WITH THE EPIGENETIC CLOCK AND MORBIDITY/MORTALITY, ANY EFFORT SHOULD BE MADE TO REDUCE THE LOW-GRADE CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY STATE IN OBESITY.	2022	

10 2627  42 EPIGENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDY OF ADIPOSITY AND FUTURE RISK OF OBESITY-RELATED DISEASES. BACKGROUND: OBESITY IS AN ESTABLISHED RISK FACTOR FOR SEVERAL COMMON CHRONIC DISEASES SUCH AS BREAST AND COLORECTAL CANCER, METABOLIC AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES; HOWEVER, THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS FOR THESE RELATIONSHIPS IS NOT FULLY UNDERSTOOD. TO EXPLORE THE ASSOCIATION OF OBESITY WITH THESE CONDITIONS, WE INVESTIGATED PERIPHERAL BLOOD LEUCOCYTE (PBL) DNA METHYLATION MARKERS FOR ADIPOSITY AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO RISK OF INCIDENT BREAST AND COLORECTAL CANCER AND MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION. METHODS: DNA METHYLATION PROFILES (ILLUMINA INFINIUM((R)) HUMANMETHYLATION450 BEADCHIP) FROM 1941 INDIVIDUALS FROM FOUR POPULATION-BASED EUROPEAN COHORTS WERE ANALYSED IN RELATION TO BODY MASS INDEX, WAIST CIRCUMFERENCE, WAIST-HIP AND WAIST-HEIGHT RATIO WITHIN A META-ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK. IN A SUBSET OF THESE INDIVIDUALS, DATA ON GENOME-WIDE GENE EXPRESSION LEVEL, BIOMARKERS OF GLUCOSE AND LIPID METABOLISM WERE ALSO AVAILABLE. VALIDATION OF METHYLATION MARKERS ASSOCIATED WITH ALL ADIPOSITY MEASURES WAS PERFORMED IN 358 INDIVIDUALS. FINALLY, WE INVESTIGATED THE ASSOCIATION OF OBESITY-RELATED METHYLATION MARKS WITH BREAST, COLORECTAL CANCER AND MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION WITHIN RELEVANT SUBSETS OF THE DISCOVERY POPULATION. RESULTS: WE IDENTIFIED 40 CPG LOCI WITH METHYLATION LEVELS ASSOCIATED WITH AT LEAST ONE ADIPOSITY MEASURE. OF THESE, ONE CPG LOCUS (CG06500161) IN ABCG1 WAS ASSOCIATED WITH ALL FOUR ADIPOSITY MEASURES (P = 9.07X10(-)(8) TO 3.27X10(-18)) AND LOWER TRANSCRIPTIONAL ACTIVITY OF THE FULL-LENGTH ISOFORM OF ABCG1 (P = 6.00X10(-7)), HIGHER TRIGLYCERIDE LEVELS (P = 5.37X10(-)(9)) AND HIGHER TRIGLYCERIDES-TO-HDL CHOLESTEROL RATIO (P = 1.03X10(-10)). OF THE 40 INFORMATIVE AND OBESITY-RELATED CPG LOCI, TWO (IN IL2RB AND FGF18) WERE SIGNIFICANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH COLORECTAL CANCER (INVERSELY, P < 1.6X10(-3)) AND ONE INTERGENIC LOCUS ON CHROMOSOME 1 WAS INVERSELY ASSOCIATED WITH MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION (P < 1.25X10(-3)), INDEPENDENTLY OF OBESITY AND ESTABLISHED RISK FACTORS. CONCLUSION: OUR RESULTS SUGGEST THAT EPIGENETIC CHANGES, IN PARTICULAR ALTERED DNA METHYLATION PATTERNS, MAY BE AN INTERMEDIATE BIOMARKER AT THE INTERSECTION OF OBESITY AND OBESITY-RELATED DISEASES, AND COULD OFFER CLUES AS TO UNDERLYING BIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS.	2018	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
11 3914  47 LIFETIME STRESS ACCELERATES EPIGENETIC AGING IN AN URBAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN COHORT: RELEVANCE OF GLUCOCORTICOID SIGNALING. BACKGROUND: CHRONIC PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS IS ASSOCIATED WITH ACCELERATED AGING AND INCREASED RISK FOR AGING-RELATED DISEASES, BUT THE UNDERLYING MOLECULAR MECHANISMS ARE UNCLEAR. RESULTS: WE EXAMINED THE EFFECT OF LIFETIME STRESSORS ON A DNA METHYLATION-BASED AGE PREDICTOR, EPIGENETIC CLOCK. AFTER CONTROLLING FOR BLOOD CELL-TYPE COMPOSITION AND LIFESTYLE PARAMETERS, CUMULATIVE LIFETIME STRESS, BUT NOT CHILDHOOD MALTREATMENT OR CURRENT STRESS ALONE, PREDICTED ACCELERATED EPIGENETIC AGING IN AN URBAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN COHORT (N = 392). THIS EFFECT WAS PRIMARILY DRIVEN BY PERSONAL LIFE STRESSORS, WAS MORE PRONOUNCED WITH ADVANCING AGE, AND WAS BLUNTED IN INDIVIDUALS WITH HIGHER CHILDHOOD ABUSE EXPOSURE. HYPOTHESIZING THAT THESE EPIGENETIC EFFECTS COULD BE MEDIATED BY GLUCOCORTICOID SIGNALING, WE FOUND THAT A HIGH NUMBER (N = 85) OF EPIGENETIC CLOCK CPG SITES WERE LOCATED WITHIN GLUCOCORTICOID RESPONSE ELEMENTS. WE FURTHER EXAMINED THE FUNCTIONAL EFFECTS OF GLUCOCORTICOIDS ON EPIGENETIC CLOCK CPGS IN AN INDEPENDENT SAMPLE WITH GENOME-WIDE DNA METHYLATION (N = 124) AND GENE EXPRESSION DATA (N = 297) BEFORE AND AFTER EXPOSURE TO THE GLUCOCORTICOID RECEPTOR AGONIST DEXAMETHASONE. DEXAMETHASONE INDUCED DYNAMIC CHANGES IN METHYLATION IN 31.2 % (110/353) OF THESE CPGS AND TRANSCRIPTION IN 81.7 % (139/170) OF GENES NEIGHBORING EPIGENETIC CLOCK CPGS. DISEASE ENRICHMENT ANALYSIS OF THESE DEXAMETHASONE-REGULATED GENES SHOWED ENRICHED ASSOCIATION FOR AGING-RELATED DISEASES, INCLUDING CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE, ARTERIOSCLEROSIS, AND LEUKEMIAS. CONCLUSIONS: CUMULATIVE LIFETIME STRESS MAY ACCELERATE EPIGENETIC AGING, AN EFFECT THAT COULD BE DRIVEN BY GLUCOCORTICOID-INDUCED EPIGENETIC CHANGES. THESE FINDINGS CONTRIBUTE TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF MECHANISMS LINKING CHRONIC STRESS WITH ACCELERATED AGING AND HEIGHTENED DISEASE RISK.	2015	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
12 1355  34 DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A SIMPLE GENERAL POPULATION LUNG CANCER RISK MODEL INCLUDING AHRR-METHYLATION. INTRODUCTION: SCREENING REDUCES LUNG CANCER MORTALITY OF HIGH-RISK POPULATIONS. CURRENTLY PROPOSED SCREENING ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA ONLY IDENTIFY HALF OF THOSE INDIVIDUALS, WHO LATER DEVELOP LUNG CANCER. THIS STUDY AIMED TO DEVELOP AND VALIDATE A SENSITIVE AND SIMPLE MODEL FOR PREDICTING 10-YEAR LUNG CANCER RISK. METHODS: USING THE 1991-94 EXAMINATION OF THE COPENHAGEN CITY HEART STUDY IN DENMARK, 6,820 FORMER OR CURRENT SMOKERS FROM THE GENERAL POPULATION WERE FOLLOWED FOR LUNG CANCER WITHIN 10 YEARS AFTER EXAMINATION. LOGISTIC REGRESSION OF BASELINE VARIABLES (AGE, SEX, EDUCATION, CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE, FAMILY HISTORY OF LUNG CANCER, SMOKING STATUS AND CUMULATIVE SMOKING, SECONDHAND SMOKING, OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURES TO DUST AND FUME, BODY MASS INDEX, LUNG FUNCTION, PLASMA C-REACTIVE PROTEIN, AND AHRR(CG05575921) METHYLATION) IDENTIFIED THE BEST PREDICTIVE MODEL. THE MODEL WAS VALIDATED AMONG 3,740 FORMER OR CURRENT SMOKERS FROM THE 2001-03 EXAMINATION, ALSO FOLLOWED FOR 10 YEARS. A SIMPLE RISK CHART WAS DEVELOPED WITH POISSON REGRESSION. RESULTS: AGE, SEX, EDUCATION, SMOKING STATUS, CUMULATIVE SMOKING, AND AHRR(CG05575921) METHYLATION IDENTIFIED 65 OF 88 INDIVIDUALS WHO DEVELOPED LUNG CANCER IN THE VALIDATION COHORT. THE HIGHEST RISK GROUP, CONSISTING OF LESS EDUCATED MEN AGED >65 WITH CURRENT SMOKING STATUS AND CUMULATIVE SMOKING >20 PACK-YEARS, HAD ABSOLUTE 10-YEAR RISKS VARYING FROM 4% TO 16% BY AHRR(CG05575921) METHYLATION. CONCLUSION: A SIMPLE RISK CHART INCLUDING AGE, SEX, EDUCATION, SMOKING STATUS, CUMULATIVE SMOKING, AND AHRR(CG05575921) METHYLATION, IDENTIFIES INDIVIDUALS WITH 10-YEAR LUNG CANCER RISK FROM BELOW 1% TO 16%. INCLUDING AHRR(CG05575921) METHYLATION IN THE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SCREENING IDENTIFIES SMOKERS WHO WOULD BENEFIT THE MOST FROM SCREENING.	2023	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
13 1849  34 EIGHT WEEKS OF PHYSICAL TRAINING DECREASES 2 YEARS OF DNA METHYLATION AGE OF SEDENTARY WOMEN. PURPOSE: THE ACCELERATION OF EPIGENETIC AGE IS A PREDICTOR OF MORTALITY AND CONTRIBUTES TO THE INCREASE IN CHRONIC DISEASES. ADHERENCE TO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE IS A STRATEGY TO REDUCE EPIGENETIC AGE. THE PRESENT STUDY AIMED TO DETERMINE WHETHER EIGHT WEEKS OF COMBINED (AEROBIC AND STRENGTH) TRAINING (CT) CAN INFLUENCE THE EPIGENETIC AGE OF WOMEN BETWEEN 50 AND 70 YEARS OLD AND THE DIFFERENCES IN SITES AND METHYLATED REGIONS. METHODS: EIGHTEEN WOMEN (AAR(LOW): LOWER AGE ACCELERATION RESIDUAL, N = 10; AAR(HIGH): HIGHER AGE ACCELERATION RESIDUAL, N = 8) PARTICIPATED IN A COMBINED EXERCISE TRAINING PROGRAM (60 MINUTES, 3X A WEEK) FOR EIGHT WEEKS. DNA WAS EXTRACTED FROM WHOLE BLOOD USING THE SALTING OUT TECHNIQUE. DNA METHYLATION WAS PERFORMED USING THE ARRAY TECHNIQUE (ILLUMINA'S INFINIUM METHYLATION BEADCHIP 850K). WE USED THE DNA METHYLATION AGE CALCULATOR PLATFORM TO CALCULATE THE BIOLOGICAL EPIGENETIC AGE. TWO-WAY ANOVA FOLLOWED BY FISHER LSD POSTHOC WAS APPLIED, ADOPTING P < .05. RESULTS: AFTER EIGHT WEEKS OF CT, THERE WERE NO CHANGES TO THE EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION FOR THE AAR(LOW) GROUP (PRE: -2.3 +/- 3.2 TO POST: -2.3 +/- 3.6). HOWEVER, THE AAR(HIGH) GROUP SIGNIFICANTLY DECREASED THE AGE ACCELERATION (PRE: 3.6 +/- 2.6 TO POST: 2.2 +/- 2.7) (GROUP EFFECT, P = .01; TIME EFFECT, P = .31; GROUP VS. TIME EFFECT, P = .005). CONCLUSION: CT FOR EIGHT WEEKS BENEFITS THE EPIGENETIC CLOCK OF WOMEN WITH THE MOST ACCELERATED AGE.	2023	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
14 5095  32 PLASMA PROTEOMIC BIOMARKER SIGNATURE OF AGE PREDICTS HEALTH AND LIFE SPAN. OLDER AGE IS A STRONG SHARED RISK FACTOR FOR MANY CHRONIC DISEASES, AND THERE IS INCREASING INTEREST IN IDENTIFYING AGING BIOMARKERS. HERE, A PROTEOMIC ANALYSIS OF 1301 PLASMA PROTEINS WAS CONDUCTED IN 997 INDIVIDUALS BETWEEN 21 AND 102 YEARS OF AGE. WE IDENTIFIED 651 PROTEINS ASSOCIATED WITH AGE (506 OVER-REPRESENTED, 145 UNDERREPRESENTED WITH AGE). MEDIATION ANALYSIS SUGGESTED A ROLE FOR PARTIAL CIS-EPIGENETIC CONTROL OF PROTEIN EXPRESSION WITH AGE. OF THE AGE-ASSOCIATED PROTEINS, 33.5% AND 45.3%, WERE ASSOCIATED WITH MORTALITY AND MULTIMORBIDITY, RESPECTIVELY. THERE WAS ENRICHMENT OF PROTEINS ASSOCIATED WITH INFLAMMATION AND EXTRACELLULAR MATRIX AS WELL AS SENESCENCE-ASSOCIATED SECRETORY PROTEINS. A 76-PROTEIN PROTEOMIC AGE SIGNATURE PREDICTED ACCUMULATION OF CHRONIC DISEASES AND ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY. THESE DATA SUPPORT THE USE OF PROTEOMIC BIOMARKERS TO MONITOR AGING TRAJECTORIES AND TO IDENTIFY INDIVIDUALS AT HIGHER RISK OF DISEASE TO BE TARGETED FOR IN DEPTH DIAGNOSTIC PROCEDURES AND EARLY INTERVENTIONS.	2020	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
15   50  38 A DEEP LEARNING MODEL FOR EARLY RISK PREDICTION OF HEART FAILURE WITH PRESERVED EJECTION FRACTION BY DNA METHYLATION PROFILES COMBINED WITH CLINICAL FEATURES. BACKGROUND: HEART FAILURE WITH PRESERVED EJECTION FRACTION (HFPEF), AFFECTED COLLECTIVELY BY GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS, IS THE COMMON SUBTYPE OF CHRONIC HEART FAILURE. ALTHOUGH THE AVAILABLE RISK ASSESSMENT METHODS FOR HFPEF HAVE ACHIEVED SOME PROGRESS, THEY WERE BASED ON CLINICAL OR GENETIC FEATURES ALONE. HERE, WE HAVE DEVELOPED A DEEP LEARNING FRAMEWORK, HFMERISK, USING BOTH 5 CLINICAL FEATURES AND 25 DNA METHYLATION LOCI TO PREDICT THE EARLY RISK OF HFPEF IN THE FRAMINGHAM HEART STUDY COHORT. RESULTS: THE FRAMEWORK INCORPORATES LEAST ABSOLUTE SHRINKAGE AND SELECTION OPERATOR AND EXTREME GRADIENT BOOSTING-BASED FEATURE SELECTION, AS WELL AS A FACTORIZATION-MACHINE BASED NEURAL NETWORK-BASED RECOMMENDER SYSTEM. MODEL DISCRIMINATION AND CALIBRATION WERE ASSESSED USING THE AUC AND HOSMER-LEMESHOW TEST. HFMERISK, INCLUDING 25 CPGS AND 5 CLINICAL FEATURES, HAVE ACHIEVED THE AUC OF 0.90 (95% CONFIDENCE INTERVAL 0.88-0.92) AND HOSMER-LEMESHOW STATISTIC WAS 6.17 (P = 0.632), WHICH OUTPERFORMED MODELS WITH CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS OR DNA METHYLATION LEVELS ALONE, PUBLISHED CHRONIC HEART FAILURE RISK PREDICTION MODELS AND OTHER BENCHMARK MACHINE LEARNING MODELS. OUT OF THEM, THE DNA METHYLATION LEVELS OF TWO CPGS WERE SIGNIFICANTLY CORRELATED WITH THE PAIRED TRANSCRIPTOME LEVELS (R < -0.3, P < 0.05). BESIDES, DNA METHYLATION LOCUS IN HFMERISK WERE ASSOCIATED WITH INTERCELLULAR SIGNALING AND INTERACTION, AMINO ACID METABOLISM, TRANSPORT AND ACTIVATION AND THE CLINICAL VARIABLES WERE ALL RELATED WITH THE MECHANISM OF OCCURRENCE OF HFPEF. TOGETHER, THESE FINDINGS GIVE NEW EVIDENCE INTO THE HFMERISK MODEL. CONCLUSION: OUR STUDY PROPOSES AN EARLY RISK ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK FOR HFPEF INTEGRATING BOTH CLINICAL AND EPIGENETIC FEATURES, PROVIDING A PROMISING PATH FOR CLINICAL DECISION MAKING.	2022	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
16 1607  35 DNA METHYLATION, COLON CANCER AND MEDITERRANEAN DIET: RESULTS FROM THE EPIC-ITALY COHORT. THE BIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS THROUGH WHICH ADHERENCE TO MEDITERRANEAN DIET (MD) PROTECTS AGAINST COLON CANCER (CC) ARE POORLY UNDERSTOOD. EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT CHRONIC INFLAMMATION MAY BE IMPLICATED IN THE PATHWAY. BOTH DIET AND CC ARE RELATED TO EPIGENETIC REGULATION. WE PERFORMED A NESTED CASE-CONTROL STUDY ON 161 PAIRS FROM THE ITALIAN COMPONENT OF THE EUROPEAN PROSPECTIVE INVESTIGATION INTO CANCER AND NUTRITION (EPIC) COHORT, IN WHICH WE LOOKED FOR THE METHYLATION SIGNALS IN DNA EXTRACTED FROM LEUCOCYTES ASSOCIATED WITH BOTH CC AND MD IN 995 CPGS LOCATED IN 48 INFLAMMATION GENES. THE DNA METHYLATION SIGNALS DETECTED IN THIS ANALYSIS WERE VALIDATED IN A SUBGROUP OF 47 CASE-CONTROL PAIRS AND FURTHER REPLICATED (WHERE VALIDATED) IN 95 NEW PAIRS BY MEANS OF PYROSEQUENCING. AMONG THE CPG SITES SELECTED A-PRIORI IN INFLAMMATION-RELATED GENES, SEVEN CPG SITES WERE FOUND TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH CC STATUS AND WITH MD, IN LINE WITH ITS PROTECTIVE EFFECT. ONLY TWO CPG SITES (CG17968347-SERPINE1 AND CG20674490-RUNX3) WERE VALIDATED USING BISULPHITE PYROSEQUENCING AND, AFTER REPLICATION, WE FOUND THAT DNA METHYLATION OF CG20674490-RUNX3 MAY BE A POTENTIAL MOLECULAR MEDIATOR EXPLAINING THE PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF MD ON CC ONSET. THE USE OF A 'MEET-IN-THE-MIDDLE' APPROACH TO IDENTIFY THE OVERLAP BETWEEN EXPOSURE AND PREDICTIVE MARKERS OF DISEASE IS INNOVATIVE IN STUDIES ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIET AND CANCER, IN WHICH EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT IS DIFFICULT AND THE MECHANISMS THROUGH WHICH THE NUTRIENTS EXERT THEIR PROTECTIVE EFFECT IS LARGELY UNKNOWN.	2019	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
17 1625  59 DNAM-BASED SIGNATURES OF ACCELERATED AGING AND MORTALITY IN BLOOD ARE ASSOCIATED WITH LOW RENAL FUNCTION. BACKGROUND: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN INDIVIDUAL'S CHRONOLOGICAL AND DNA METHYLATION PREDICTED AGE (DNAMAGE), TERMED DNAMAGE ACCELERATION (DNAMAA), CAN CAPTURE LIFE-LONG ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES AND AGE-RELATED PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES REFLECTED IN METHYLATION STATUS. SEVERAL STUDIES HAVE LINKED DNAMAA TO MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY, YET ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH KIDNEY FUNCTION HAS NOT BEEN ASSESSED. WE EVALUATED THE ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN SEVEN DNAM AGING AND LIFESPAN PREDICTORS (AS WELL AS GRIMAGE COMPONENTS) AND FIVE KIDNEY TRAITS (ESTIMATED GLOMERULAR FILTRATION RATE [EGFR], URINE ALBUMIN-TO-CREATININE RATIO [UACR], SERUM URATE, MICROALBUMINURIA AND CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE [CKD]) IN UP TO 9688 EUROPEAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN AND HISPANIC/LATINO INDIVIDUALS FROM SEVEN POPULATION-BASED STUDIES. RESULTS: WE IDENTIFIED 23 SIGNIFICANT ASSOCIATIONS IN OUR LARGE TRANS-ETHNIC META-ANALYSIS (P < 1.43E-03 AND CONSISTENT DIRECTION OF EFFECT ACROSS STUDIES). AGE ACCELERATION MEASURED BY THE EXTRINSIC AND PHENOAGE ESTIMATORS, AS WELL AS ZHANG'S 10-CPG EPIGENETIC MORTALITY RISK SCORE (MRS), WERE ASSOCIATED WITH ALL PARAMETERS OF POOR KIDNEY HEALTH (LOWER EGFR, PREVALENT CKD, HIGHER UACR, MICROALBUMINURIA AND HIGHER SERUM URATE). SIX OF THESE ASSOCIATIONS WERE INDEPENDENTLY OBSERVED IN EUROPEAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATIONS. MRS IN PARTICULAR WAS CONSISTENTLY ASSOCIATED WITH EGFR (BETA = - 0.12, 95% CI = [- 0.16, - 0.08] CHANGE IN LOG-TRANSFORMED EGFR PER UNIT INCREASE IN MRS, P = 4.39E-08), PREVALENT CKD (ODDS RATIO (OR) = 1.78 [1.47, 2.16], P = 2.71E-09) AND HIGHER SERUM URATE LEVELS (BETA = 0.12 [0.07, 0.16], P = 2.08E-06). THE "FIRST-GENERATION" CLOCKS (HANNUM, HORVATH) AND GRIMAGE SHOWED DIFFERENT PATTERNS OF ASSOCIATION WITH THE KIDNEY TRAITS. THREE OF THE DNAM-ESTIMATED COMPONENTS OF GRIMAGE, NAMELY ADRENOMEDULLIN, PLASMINOGEN-ACTIVATION INHIBITION 1 AND PACK YEARS, WERE POSITIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH HIGHER UACR, SERUM URATE AND MICROALBUMINURIA. CONCLUSION: DNAMAGE ACCELERATION AND DNAM MORTALITY PREDICTORS ESTIMATED IN WHOLE BLOOD WERE ASSOCIATED WITH MULTIPLE KIDNEY TRAITS, INCLUDING EGFR AND CKD, IN THIS MULTI-ETHNIC STUDY. EPIGENETIC BIOMARKERS WHICH REFLECT THE SYSTEMIC EFFECTS OF AGE-RELATED MECHANISMS SUCH AS IMMUNOSENESCENCE, INFLAMMAGING AND OXIDATIVE STRESS MAY HAVE IMPORTANT MECHANISTIC OR PROGNOSTIC ROLES IN KIDNEY DISEASE. OUR STUDY HIGHLIGHTS NEW FINDINGS LINKING KIDNEY DISEASE TO BIOLOGICAL AGING, AND OPPORTUNITIES WARRANTING FUTURE INVESTIGATION INTO DNA METHYLATION BIOMARKERS FOR PROGNOSTIC OR RISK STRATIFICATION IN KIDNEY DISEASE.	2021	
                                                                                              
18 1271  37 CYTOSINE METHYLATION PREDICTS RENAL FUNCTION DECLINE IN AMERICAN INDIANS. DIABETIC NEPHROPATHY ACCOUNTS FOR MOST OF THE EXCESS MORTALITY IN INDIVIDUALS WITH DIABETES, BUT THE MOLECULAR MECHANISMS BY WHICH NEPHROPATHY DEVELOPS ARE LARGELY UNKNOWN. HERE WE TESTED CYTOSINE METHYLATION LEVELS AT 397,063 GENOMIC CPG SITES FOR ASSOCIATION WITH DECLINE IN THE ESTIMATED GLOMERULAR FILTRATION RATE (EGFR) OVER A SIX YEAR PERIOD IN 181 DIABETIC PIMA INDIANS. METHYLATION LEVELS AT 77 SITES SHOWED SIGNIFICANT ASSOCIATION WITH EGFR DECLINE AFTER CORRECTION FOR MULTIPLE COMPARISONS. A MODEL INCLUDING METHYLATION LEVEL AT TWO PROBES (CG25799291 AND CG22253401) IMPROVED PREDICTION OF EGFR DECLINE IN ADDITION TO BASELINE EGFR AND THE ALBUMIN TO CREATININE RATIO WITH THE PERCENT OF VARIANCE EXPLAINED SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVING FROM 23.1% TO 42.2%. CG22253401 WAS ALSO SIGNIFICANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH EGFR DECLINE IN A CASE-CONTROL STUDY DERIVED FROM THE CHRONIC RENAL INSUFFICIENCY COHORT. PROBES AT WHICH METHYLATION SIGNIFICANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH EGFR DECLINE WERE LOCALIZED TO GENE REGULATORY REGIONS AND ENRICHED FOR GENES WITH METABOLIC FUNCTIONS AND APOPTOSIS. THREE OF THE 77 PROBES THAT WERE ASSOCIATED WITH EGFR DECLINE IN BLOOD SAMPLES SHOWED DIRECTIONALLY CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT ASSOCIATION WITH FIBROSIS IN MICRODISSECTED HUMAN KIDNEY TISSUE, AFTER CORRECTION FOR MULTIPLE COMPARISONS. THUS, CYTOSINE METHYLATION LEVELS MAY PROVIDE BIOMARKERS OF DISEASE PROGRESSION IN DIABETIC NEPHROPATHY AND EPIGENETIC VARIATIONS CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF DIABETIC KIDNEY DISEASE.	2018	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
19 6508  40 TRAJECTORIES OF INFLAMMATORY BIOMARKERS OVER THE EIGHTH DECADE AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS WITH IMMUNE CELL PROFILES AND EPIGENETIC AGEING. BACKGROUND: EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION (AN OLDER METHYLATION AGE COMPARED TO CHRONOLOGICAL AGE) CORRELATES STRONGLY WITH VARIOUS AGE-RELATED MORBIDITIES AND MORTALITY. CHRONIC SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION IS THOUGHT TO BE A HALLMARK OF AGEING, BUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AN INCREASED EPIGENETIC AGE AND THIS LIKELY KEY PHENOTYPE OF AGEING HAS NOT YET BEEN EXTENSIVELY INVESTIGATED. METHODS: WE MODELLED THE TRAJECTORIES OF THE INFLAMMATORY BIOMARKERS C-REACTIVE PROTEIN (CRP; MEASURED USING BOTH A HIGH- AND LOW-SENSITIVITY ASSAY) AND INTERLEUKIN-6 (IL-6) OVER THE EIGHTH DECADE IN THE LOTHIAN BIRTH COHORT 1936. USING LINEAR MIXED MODELS, WE INVESTIGATED THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN CRP AND IMMUNE CELL PROFILES IMPUTED FROM THE METHYLATION DATA AND EXAMINED THE CROSS-SECTIONAL AND LONGITUDINAL ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE INFLAMMATORY BIOMARKERS AND TWO MEASURES OF EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION, DERIVED FROM THE HORVATH AND HANNUM EPIGENETIC CLOCKS. RESULTS: WE FOUND THAT LOW-SENSITIVITY CRP DECLINED, HIGH-SENSITIVITY CRP DID NOT CHANGE, AND IL-6 INCREASED OVER TIME WITHIN THE COHORT. CRP LEVELS INVERSELY ASSOCIATED WITH CD8+T CELLS AND CD4+T CELLS AND POSITIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH SENESCENT CD8+T CELLS, PLASMABLASTS AND GRANULOCYTES. CROSS-SECTIONALLY, THE HANNUM, BUT NOT THE HORVATH, MEASURE OF AGE ACCELERATION WAS POSITIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH EACH OF THE INFLAMMATORY BIOMARKERS, INCLUDING A RESTRICTED MEASURE OF CRP (</= 10 MG/L) LIKELY REFLECTING LEVELS RELEVANT TO CHRONIC INFLAMMATION. CONCLUSIONS: WE FOUND A DIVERGENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFLAMMATION AND IMMUNE SYSTEM PARAMETERS IN OLDER AGE. WE ADDITIONALLY REPORT THE HANNUM MEASURE OF EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION ASSOCIATED WITH AN ELEVATED INFLAMMATORY PROFILE CROSS-SECTIONALLY, BUT NOT LONGITUDINALLY.	2018	
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
20 5847  49 SUBCLINICAL ATHEROSCLEROSIS AND ACCELERATED EPIGENETIC AGE MEDIATED BY INFLAMMATION: A MULTI-OMICS STUDY. AIMS: EPIGENETIC AGE IS EMERGING AS A PERSONALIZED AND ACCURATE PREDICTOR OF BIOLOGICAL AGE. THE AIM OF THIS ARTICLE IS TO ASSESS THE ASSOCIATION OF SUBCLINICAL ATHEROSCLEROSIS WITH ACCELERATED EPIGENETIC AGE AND TO INVESTIGATE THE UNDERLYING MECHANISMS MEDIATING THIS ASSOCIATION. METHODS AND RESULTS: WHOLE BLOOD METHYLOMICS, TRANSCRIPTOMICS, AND PLASMA PROTEOMICS WERE OBTAINED FOR 391 PARTICIPANTS OF THE PROGRESSION OF EARLY SUBCLINICAL ATHEROSCLEROSIS STUDY. EPIGENETIC AGE WAS CALCULATED FROM METHYLOMICS DATA FOR EACH PARTICIPANT. ITS DIVERGENCE FROM CHRONOLOGICAL AGE IS TERMED EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION. SUBCLINICAL ATHEROSCLEROSIS BURDEN WAS ESTIMATED BY MULTI-TERRITORY 2D/3D VASCULAR ULTRASOUND AND BY CORONARY ARTERY CALCIFICATION. IN HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS, THE PRESENCE, EXTENSION, AND PROGRESSION OF SUBCLINICAL ATHEROSCLEROSIS WERE ASSOCIATED WITH A SIGNIFICANT ACCELERATION OF THE GRIM EPIGENETIC AGE, A PREDICTOR OF HEALTH AND LIFESPAN, REGARDLESS OF TRADITIONAL CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS. INDIVIDUALS WITH AN ACCELERATED GRIM EPIGENETIC AGE WERE CHARACTERIZED BY AN INCREASED SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION AND ASSOCIATED WITH A SCORE OF LOW-GRADE, CHRONIC INFLAMMATION. MEDIATION ANALYSIS USING TRANSCRIPTOMICS AND PROTEOMICS DATA REVEALED KEY PRO-INFLAMMATORY PATHWAYS (IL6, INFLAMMASOME, AND IL10) AND GENES (IL1B, OSM, TLR5, AND CD14) MEDIATING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SUBCLINICAL ATHEROSCLEROSIS AND EPIGENETIC AGE ACCELERATION. CONCLUSION: THE PRESENCE, EXTENSION, AND PROGRESSION OF SUBCLINICAL ATHEROSCLEROSIS IN MIDDLE-AGED ASYMPTOMATIC INDIVIDUALS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH AN ACCELERATION IN THE GRIM EPIGENETIC AGE. MEDIATION ANALYSIS USING TRANSCRIPTOMICS AND PROTEOMICS DATA SUGGESTS A KEY ROLE OF SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION IN THIS ASSOCIATION, REINFORCING THE RELEVANCE OF INTERVENTIONS ON INFLAMMATION TO PREVENT CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE.	2023