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Contextualizing aging clocks and properly describing biological age
Adiv A Johnson1, Maxim N Shokhirev1
1Tally Health, New York City, New York, USA.
Aging Cell
|October 11, 2024
Summary
Scientists recommend precise language when discussing aging. Aging clocks measure specific biological markers, not overall biological age, to avoid confusion.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Biomarkers
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- The term "biological age" is increasingly used to describe the output of aging clocks.
- Aging is a complex, multifactorial process that is tissue-specific.
- A single metric cannot fully quantify an individual's aging process.
Purpose of the Study:
- To clarify the distinction between aging clock outputs and the concept of whole-body biological age.
- To propose standardized nomenclature for describing aging clock results.
- To prevent conflation of specific aging biomarkers with overall biological aging.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of current scientific literature and common terminology regarding aging clocks.
- Survey of scientific consensus on the quantification of aging.
- Development of a nomenclature framework for aging clock outputs.
Main Results:
- Most scientists agree that aging cannot be quantified by a single metric.
- Aging clocks provide measures of specific aging aspects (e.g., epigenetic age, transcriptomic age), not comprehensive biological age.
- A proposed naming convention suggests describing clock output by input data type or clock name (e.g., "epigenetic age" or "CheekAge").
Conclusions:
- Aging clocks should not be equated with whole-body biological age.
- Precise terminology is crucial for accurate scientific communication and public understanding of aging.
- Aging biomarkers can serve as indicators of biological age, but not as its sole determinant.
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