Medicosnext
In a recently published paper in Nature Communications, a group of researchers from Brunel University, London, and Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands, stated that in the near future, doctors will be able to predict an individual’s life span. Their study, involving data from 44,868 people aged between 16 years to 109 years (of which 5,512 died during the follow-up period), has come to the conclusion that by examining certain biomarkers in the blood, one can make an accurate prediction of people’s lifespans. They believe that by testing the state of the biomarkers in the blood, they will be able to say whether someone will live 5 or 10 more years.
The researchers started with a list of metabolites, out of which they finally settled on 14 specific biomarkers that were independently associated with mortality. The study states, “The 14 identified biomarkers are involved in various processes, such as lipoprotein and fatty acid metabolism, glycolysis, fluid balance, and inflammation. Although the majority of these biomarkers have been associated with mortality before, this is the first study that shows their independent effect when combined into one model.”
Based on this list, they created a system of scoring to predict an individual’s lifespan. Then, they determined the reliability of the new system by comparing it with a standard risk factors-based model by researching data from an additional 7,603 people, among whom 1,213 passed away during the course of the follow-up. They discovered that higher concentrations of some biomarkers like leucine, histidine, and valine meant that the individual in question had a shorter lifespan, and that lower concentrations of biomarkers like lactate, glucose, and phenylalanine meant increased mortality. The results were similar in both men and women. The summary statistics of their primary survival meta-analysis are available in the BBMRI -omics atlas: http://bbmri.researchlumc.nl/atlas.
The study concluded, “There’s a hope that in the near future we can understand the biomarkers that can be modified, perhaps by helping people improve their lifestyle or through medication, to lower the risk of death before a significant deterioration of health.”
Source: Nature Communications, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11311-9
