Your DNA may appear older than you think
Menée à partir d'échantillons sanguins prélevés sur 2 764 femmes de la cohorte "Sister Study", cette étude évalue l'association entre l'âge biologique, basé sur le niveau de méthylation de l'ADN, et le risque de cancer du sein (1 566 cas)
The difference betweenchronologic age andinferred “biological age,”–also known asage acceleration–is related with breast cancer risk,and represents progress formolecular measuresthat mayenhance risk assessmentapproaches in the future.The application of epigenetic clocks to infer subject age using measures of DNA methylation hasutility for investigatingthe biology of aging and aging as a risk factor for cancer. Epigenetic clocks estimate chronologic age usingsets of CpG sites that have been previously defined byregression of DNA methylation onagein large numbers of subjectsand in a tissue-specific or tissue agnostic manner. Age clocks using DNA methylation are established as being more accurate age estimators than other molecular-based approaches, potentiallydue to the stability of both DNA and of cytosine methylation, which is a covalent modification. Alterations to DNA methylation occur early in neoplastic transformation and have been widely observed across tumor types,firmlyestablishing a premise for identifying and exploiting DNA methylation biomarkers of cancer risk.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute , éditorial en libre accès, 2018