Aging Rate Indicators as Speedometers for Aging Research

Is it possible to measure the pace of aging at any given moment? Are there biomarkers that reveal not the biological age of the individual, but rather how fast that biological age is changing? The field is presently focused on developing measures of biological age, such as the extensive work on epigenetic clocks. Some information about pace of aging might be inferred from whether biological age is higher or lower than chronological age, assuming a biological age measurement that is actually accurate, something that still a topic for contention. But that doesn't say anything about the momentary pace of aging at any given time. That information would certainly prove useful in the context of testing interventions that adjust the pace at which aging proceeds. It isn't all that interesting in the context of interventions that reverse aging, such as by repairing the underlying cell and tissue damage that causes aging. In that case, pace of aging becomes irrelevant. The desire to measure the pace of aging reflects a bias towards merely slowing aging rather than achieving rejuvenation, and that is certainly the character of much of the field, sad to say. Researchers interested in the biology of aging, and its potential modification by antiaging drugs, have devoted a substantial amount of community effort to the search for possible biomarkers of aging, conceived as quantifiable traits that can reveal the biological age of an individual animal. The central framework here is th...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs