Epigenetic age acceleration as a biomarker for impaired cognitive abilities in adulthood following early life adversity and psychiatric disorders
Year: 2023
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Early life adversity and psychiatric disorders are associated with earlier declines in neurocognitive abilities during adulthood. These declines may be preceded by changes in biological aging, specifically epigenetic age acceleration, providing an opportunity to uncover genome-wide biomarkers that identify individuals most likely to benefit from early screening and prevention. Five unique epigenetic age acceleration clocks derived from peripheral blood were examined in relation to latent variables of general and speeded cognitive abilities across two independent cohorts: 1) the Female Growth and Development Study (FGDS; n = 86), a 30-year prospective cohort study of substantiated child sexual abuse and non-abused controls, and 2) the Biological Classification of Mental Disorders study (BeCOME; n = 313), an adult community cohort established based on psychiatric disorders. A faster pace of biological aging (DunedinPoAm) was associated with lower general cognitive abilities in both cohorts and slower speeded abilities in the BeCOME cohort. Acceleration in the Horvath clock was significantly associated with slower speeded abilities in the BeCOME cohort but not the FGDS. Acceleration in the Hannum clock and the GrimAge clock were not significantly associated with either cognitive ability. Accelerated PhenoAge was associated with slower speeded abilities in the FGDS but not the BeCOME cohort. The present results suggest that epigenetic age acceleration has the potential to serve as a biomarker for neurocognitive decline in adults with a history of early life adversity or psychiatric disorders. Estimates of epigenetic aging may identify adults at risk of cognitive decline that could benefit from early neurocognitive screening.
Source: Neurobiology of Stress
Institutions: Pennsylvania State University, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Stanford University, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Yale University, McGill University, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Emory University
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,390
Funders: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: Health & wellbeing of sexually abused females & offspring: 25 and 27 yr. followup, Creating the Next Generation of Scholars in CM Science (CMT32), G6945132364, G708300550, Epigenetic Age Acceleration as a Biomarker of Early Life Adversity and Mid-life Cognitive Function, Preconception and prenatal stress effects on cardiovascular disease risk in black women, Psychosocial Determinants and Biological Pathways to Healthy Aging (Pathways), Penn State University's Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies (TCCMS), Yale Clinical and Translational Science Award
OpenAlex ID: W4387655429