Approved Research

Exploring the aging blood proteome across the lifespan

Lay summary

The circulatory system is a central component of multi-cellular organisms. Blood contains numerous biological molecules including RNA, proteins, and metabolites, as well as blood cells, which singularly and combinatorically contribute to the systemic regulation of the human body. Aging induces physical and compositional changes in the circulatory system, which in turn affects the rate and extent of aging around the whole body. Therefore, blood has been a subject of intense research in the aging community.

Experiments involving plasma exchange between young and old mice, to researchers' surprise, showed that the aging process in the old mouse was slowed down while it was accelerated in the young mouse. From these experiments and others, several circulating molecules have been identified as 'aging factors,' for instance GDF11, famously known as an anti-aging protein. These molecules have been shown to either slow down or accelerate aging in multiple tissues when their circulating levels are elevated. A

lso, a simple combination of a number of circulating molecules was able to accurately predict the chronological as well as biological age, a concept known as 'aging clock.' These results imply that blood is an important medium where aging regulators are actively interacting with cells and tissues and exert their aging-regulatory functions, rather than being a passive bystander.

Moreover, given that only a handful of circulating molecules have been studied as potential aging factors, it remains to be investigated whether there are other unidentified factors, and, if so, their underlying aging-regulatory mechanisms. Key aims of our research project are to illuminate how aging affects the circulatory system and vice versa, and discover novel blood biomarkers for potential use in routine health monitoring, prediction of disease risk, and anti-aging therapeutics.

These outputs will have a sweeping impact in the biomedical industry as well as society as a whole as they have potential to dramatically improve the quality of human lives.