Research

Mixed

A multi-tissue RNA expression signature (healthy ageing gene score) derived from muscle tissue accurately classifies biological age across muscle, brain, and skin, and higher scores in older adults are associated with better renal function, longevity, and cognitive health.

This research identifies a specific set of 150 RNA markers that can be measured from a blood sample to estimate 'biological age' and predict risks for cognitive decline and organ failure. While not yet a standard clinical test, it suggests that future blood tests could provide a more accurate assessment of health status than chronological age alone, potentially guiding preventative care for aging-related diseases like Alzheimer's.

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One hundred and fifty probe-sets form an accurate classifier of young versus older muscle tissue and this healthy ageing RNA classifier performed consistently in independent cohorts of human muscle, skin and brain tissue (n = 594, AUC = 0.83–0.96) and thus represents a biomarker for biological age.
Sanjana Sood et al. · Genome biology · 2015

Why this rating

Large independent cohorts (n=594 for classification, n=717 for AD diagnosis) and robust statistical validation (AUC 0.83-0.96).

Source

A novel multi-tissue RNA diagnostic of healthy ageing relates to cognitive health status

Sanjana Sood et al. · Genome biology · 2015

DOI 10.1186/s13059-015-0750-x

cohort · n=594Cited 248×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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