Determining a multimodal aging clock in a cohort of Chinese women

Background: Translating aging rejuvenation strategies into clinical practice has the potential to address the unmet needs of the global aging population. However, to successfully do so requires precise quantification of aging and its reversal in a way that encompasses the complexity and variation of aging.Methods: Here, in a cohort of 113 healthy women, tiled in age from young to old, we identified a repertoire of known and previously unknown markers associated with age based on multimodal measurements, including transcripts, proteins, metabolites, microbes, and clinical laboratory values, based on which an integrative aging clock and a suite of customized aging clocks were developed.Findings: A unified analysis of aging-associated traits defined four ag-ing modalities with distinct biological functions (chronic inflammation, lipid metabolism, hormone regulation, and tissue fitness), and depicted waves of changes in distinct biological pathways peak around the third and fifth decades of life. We also demonstrated that the developed aging clocks could measure biological age and assess partial aging deceleration by hormone replacement therapy, a prevalent treatment designed to correct hormonal imbalances.Conclusions: We established aging metrics that capture systemic phys-iological dysregulation, a valuable framework for monitoring the aging process and informing clinical development of aging rejuvenation stra-tegies.

Automated summary

This study identified aging markers and developed aging clocks based on multimodal measurements in a cohort of women. The study found that aging can be classified into four modalities with distinct biological functions. Waves of changes in biological pathways were observed to peak in the third and fifth decades of life. The developed aging clocks were shown to measure biological age and assess the effects of hormone replacement therapy on aging deceleration.