How old are your cells? That’s the question at the heart of an intriguing line of aging research currently being led by Denis Wirtz, vice provost for research at The Johns Hopkins University, and geriatrician Jeremy Walston, the Raymond and Anna Lublin Professor of Geriatric Medicine and the Salisbury Family CIM Scholar.
The scientists’ team made headlines two years ago when it announced it had found a method to accurately determine the age of cells based on their physical properties. These properties include such factors as the cells’ ability to move and maintain flexibility and structure. That’s important because changes associated with aging at the physiological level – such as diminished lung capacity and grip strength – tend to be secondary to changes in the cells themselves, the researchers note.
“This means that measures of cell age could give us a more accurate picture of a patient’s health than his or her biological age,” explains Wirtz, the Theophilus Halley Smoot Professor of Engineering Science. “Eventually, we want to provide clinicians with a way to see aging in cells before a patient experiences age-related health decline, such as frailty.” That would open the door to intervene with recommended treatments and lifestyle changes (such as exercise or a better diet) or with specifically targeted biological agents to stave off the cellular aging and prevent chronic disease.
“Measures of cell age could give us a more accurate picture of a patient’s health than his or her biological age. Eventually, we want to provide clinicians with a way to see aging in cells before a patient experiences age-related health decline, such as frailty.” – Denis Wirtz, Johns Hopkins vice provost for research
In addition, Wirtz and Walston believe these new measurement technologies could be used to identify people in middle age, and even younger, who are at high risk of developing some chronic diseases and perhaps of aging at an accelerated rate.
Recognizing the promise in this approach, the National Institutes of Health recently awarded the team a $3.5 million grant to continue its efforts to develop cellular biomarkers for aging.
The team, which includes researchers from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, as well as the school of medicine, is now focusing on a structural network inside the cell’s nucleus that is known as the nuclear lamin.
Recognizing the promise in this approach, the National Institutes of Health recently awarded the team a $3.5 million grant to continue its efforts to develop cellular biomarkers for aging.
“The nuclear lamin is very important because it provides mechanical support to the cell, and it regulates cell functions such as cell division and DNA replication,” Wirtz explains. “We believe it influences a wide range of age-related characteristics.”
