Single Blood Test Can Determine Age of 11 Organs and Systems

Quick Summary

• A new blood test can evaluate teh biological ages of 11 different organs and systems to detect potential health risks.
• Researchers aim to use this test to guide personalized care by determining which specific organs or systems are ageing faster.
• Customary epigenetic clocks measure overall biological age through DNA methylation but lack organ-specific precision.
• The study reviewed data from approximately 7,500 individuals and trained a model based on blood biomarkers linked to conditions in five organs (heart, lung, kidney, liver, brain) and six systems (immune, inflammatory, blood, musculoskeletal, hormone, metabolic).
• Testing on an additional dataset of 8,125 people showed the modelS scores could predict specific conditions like heart disease and cognitive decline.
• Compared with traditional methods for estimating biological age via epigenetics, this approach demonstrated comparable or improved accuracy for organ-specific aging measurements.
• Researchers stress that the test is not diagnostic but helps assess risks; further studies are needed for validation before clinical application.