Les montres transcriptomiques révèlent les signatures universelles du vieillissement dans toutes les espèces

A single gene‑expression signature can now tell whether a mouse liver or a human heart is biologically older than its chronological age.

Conserved Aging Genes Across Mammals

In a Nature paper, Alexander Tyshkovskiy and colleagues examined 11,000 transcriptomes from mice, rats, monkeys and humans. They discovered that the same set of genes—those that turn on or off as tissues age—appear in liver, heart, blood and other cell types across all four species. “The same genes are associated with aging in, for example, liver and heart in rats and humans,” Tyshkovskiy said. The authors dubbed this measure transcriptomic age, a universal clock that ticks at the same pace in every mammal.

Transcriptomic Age Predicts Disease and Mortality

Using data from the UK Biobank, the team showed that a higher transcriptomic age correlates with chronic disease and higher mortality risk. “Both humans and animals with chronic diseases had a higher transcriptomic age,” the paper reports, suggesting the clock captures cumulative cellular damage rather than just elapsed time. David Sinclair, a Harvard genetics professor not involved in the study, praised the work: “They developed transcriptomic clocks that don’t just estimate age; they measure the progressive loss of cellular function and predict biological decline and mortality risk across mammals.”

A Tool for Translating Findings into Therapies

To make the clock usable, the authors released the Transcriptomic Age Calculator Online (TACO). Researchers can upload RNA‑seq data from treated and untreated samples and see how a drug shifts transcriptomic age “regardless of the tissue and species.” Vadim Gladyshev, senior author, said the goal is to narrow down longevity candidates: “Using these tools, we could identify candidates that can be tested in the future, and maybe some of them will extend lifespan.”

The study turns aging from a vague, time‑based concept into a measurable, cross‑species biomarker. With TACO, the next step is to test interventions that lower transcriptomic age in preclinical models and, eventually, in humans.

Source: 'Universal' aging clocks offer new clues to longevity
Domain: scientificamerican.com