New Developments in Epigenetic Clocks - Steve Horvath

In his keynote at Ending Age-Related Diseases 2022, Dr. Steve Horvath revisits his particular area of expertise, discussing new advancements in epigenetic methylation clocks that go well beyond his original clock. Some clocks can be useful to assess if people have truly lived for a century or longer, while others are useful across multiple primate species or even mammals as a whole. He lists what other hallmarks of aging affect these clocks, and he talks about how they're used: to measure the impact of interventions against biological aging.
Dr. Horvath is a Professor of Human Genetics and Biostatistics at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Horvath’s research lies at the intersection of aging research, epidemiology, chronic diseases, epigenetics, genetics, and systems biology. He works on all aspects of biomarker development with a particular focus on genomic biomarkers of aging. He developed a highly accurate multi-tissue biomarker of aging known as the epigenetic clock. Dr. Horvath developed systems biologic approaches such as weighted gene co-expression network analysis which lend themselves for integrating gene genomic data sets. These methods have been used for a broad spectrum of age-related diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease. Dr. Horvath received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1995 and a Doctorate of Science in Biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2000.
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#longevity #horvath #epigenome #aging

[@peterz53]

Very informative. Thanks! Would be nice if Steve Horvath could build on the Conboy's research by using his clocks to assess the effects of simple plasma exchange akin to what is done in blood donation centers in US which also allow for donating plasma. At 175# and greater 800 mls of plasma (about 25% of your plasma volume) is taken out and partially replaced by saline. It can be done every 4 weeks. If you weight under 175 the volume is less. Platelet donation, which is in high demand and goes to cancer patients, also removes plasma, although closer to 250 mls, and can be done 24 times a year.

[@JacobAFarmer]

Great question. I've been wondering whether the various clocks hold up as people try various interventions. You hear of people reducing their biological age by doing this or that, but you have to wonder whether they are really extending their lifespan or just gaming the clock. Incidentally, I just started donating plasma after reading the latest from the Conboy's. I have type AB blood and there is a shortage. The Red Cross will safely dilute me once a month. They even give me a $10 gift card for my trouble.

[@peterz53]

@@JacobAFarmer Same here,, since beginning of 2022. Switched from whole blood which I used to donate a few times a year and now alternate between platelets and plasma fairly often. I track volume - almost 11 liters in 2022, which is probably around 3.5 plasma volumes for my weight of 177. Plan to start testing some of the human biomarkers mentioned in one of their last papers - DNA damage etc.

[@JacobAFarmer]

@@peterz53 How are you going about testing?

[@peterz53]

@@JacobAFarmer Haven't totally sorted out yet. There are some markers in the Conboy study ( Old plasma dilution reduces human biological age: a clinical study) which assess immune function, DNA damage, and blood cell ratios (Lymphocyte vs monocyte) which I can order. They can at least tell me where I am at now in comparison to most people my age and I can test again after 6 months or so. But I don't have a baseline for some of them. I get fairly frequent blood work (CBC, CMP, HbA1c, hsCRP), for the last year or so. I put some of the routine blood markers into Levine PhenoAge (you can find spreadsheet online) which consistently shows me have markers representative of someone in low 50s as opposed to my age, 68. I have some work to do to sort out how to tell specific effects of plasma donation. I also plane to look back at blood work before 2022 to see if there were positive shifts in anything. I order tests on line and go to either Quest or Labcorp here in Florida for blood draw and lab testing.

[@unutilisateur4729]

By now it should be clear that dilution doesn't have much value in itself

[@espinosalexis]

Instead of the second generation clock. Wouldn't it be better to measure directly the "tweaking" (cheating) biomarkers used for improvements in mortality risk prediction?

[@joech1065]

So the best anti-aging treatment so far is finding young kids and consuming their blood

[@juliahello6673]

🧛‍♂️

[@allurbase]

Interesting how alpha-tocopherol is good but gamma is bad.