New Tool Developed That Can Estimate Cell's Biological Age.

Ageing is a major risk factor for many diseases, but there is still a lack of methods that can reliably measure how quickly cells age. In the new study, the researchers present Pasta, a freely available tool that calculates a cell’s biological age based on which genes are active or inactive.

To develop the tool, the researchers analyzed gene activity data from more than 17,000 tissue samples taken from healthy people. The model was then tested on several independent datasets.

The researchers observed that cells with high biological age often exhibited increased activity in genes linked to DNA damage and cellular stress. The tool was also able to distinguish between older, so-called senescent cells, and more youthful, stem cell-like cells.
In the next stage, Pasta was used to analyze more than three million gene profiles from public databases where cells had been exposed to thousands of drugs and genetic alterations. The analysis identified substances and biological signaling pathways that appeared to increase or decrease the cells’ biological age. Some of the results were subsequently confirmed in laboratory experiments on human cells.

"Reliably determining the biological age of cells has long been a major challenge. We can now do this using gene expression data – a type of data that is already routinely generated in a great many research studies. I believe we are thus entering a new era in which biological age can be used as an experimental measure in many different types of studies, Pasta opens up entirely new possibilities for understanding the mechanisms behind ageing and for systematically searching for genes and substances that can influence it.” says Christian Riedel.

(Newswise/AM)