Immune aging biomarkers for clinical trials

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Geroscience
• Biomarker Discovery

Background:

• Aging significantly alters the immune system, impacting tissue repair and defense.
• Immune system decline is linked to systemic dysfunction and accelerated aging.
• Lack of consensus exists on quantifying immune aging, especially for clinical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish a translational framework for identifying immune aging biomarkers.
• To evaluate candidate biomarkers against defined criteria for clinical utility.
• To accelerate the development of immune competence biomarkers for geroscience interventions.

Main Methods:

• Defined five evaluation criteria for immune aging biomarkers.
• Applied criteria to candidate biomarkers within the XPRIZE Healthspan competition context.
• Assessed multidimensional immune function metrics, inflammaging scores, and functional assays.

Main Results:

• Metrics assessing multidimensional immune function, inflammaging scores, and functional assays performed best.
• Identified promising emerging measures for immune aging.
• Highlighted critical gaps in current biomarker development.

Conclusions:

• The proposed framework offers a path toward actionable immune aging biomarkers.
• Reliable biomarkers can quantify immune fitness and resilience.
• This will accelerate clinical translation of geroscience-guided interventions.