A metabolomic profile of biological aging in 250,341 individuals from the UK Biobank
A metabolomic profile of biological aging in 250,341 individuals from the UK Biobank

A metabolomic profile of biological aging in 250,341 individuals from the UK Biobank

Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 15;15(1):8081. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52310-9.

ABSTRACT

The metabolomic profile of aging is complex. Here, we analyse 325 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) biomarkers from 250,341 UK Biobank participants, identifying 54 representative aging-related biomarkers associated with all-cause mortality. We conduct genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for these 325 biomarkers using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 95,372 individuals and perform multivariable Mendelian randomization (MVMR) analyses, discovering 439 candidate “biomarker – disease” causal pairs at the nominal significance level. We develop a metabolomic aging score that outperforms other aging metrics in predicting short-term mortality risk and exhibits strong potential for discriminating aging-accelerated populations and improving disease risk prediction. A longitudinal analysis of 13,263 individuals enables us to calculate a metabolomic aging rate which provides more refined aging assessments and to identify candidate anti-aging and pro-aging NMR biomarkers. Taken together, our study has presented a comprehensive aging-related metabolomic profile and highlighted its potential for personalized aging monitoring and early disease intervention.

PMID:39278973 | DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-52310-9