Page 10 - Clinical Connections - Spring 2022

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Page 10 - Clinical Connections - Spring 2022
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ºÚÁÏÉç RESEARCH    STUDY    VETERINARY SERVICES       ºÚÁÏÉç.AC.UK
         Clinical Pathology

        THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH FOR OUR FELINE
        COMPANIONS?


        Balázs Szladovits, Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology

               geing  research  has  come  a  long   Finding reliable biological measures of   which has developed a pan-mammalian
               way since the late middle age’s   ageing (and general health) has been a   epigenetic clock, based on 348 species.
        A holy  grail of procurement  of the   longstanding research aspiration, based   The  fact that such  a  clock  could be
        philosopher’s stone through to the 15th   on the premise that such biomarkers would   developed highlights a highly conserved
        century quest to find the fountain of youth,   lead to the understanding of how ageing   programing of the ageing process across all
        to  our  current  scientific  understanding.   increases susceptibility to certain diseases,
        Recent  advancements  of  biotechnology   along with the identification of strategies for
        and big data-aided research is causing an   promoting healthy ageing.
        explosion in this intriguing field. An exciting   Sadly, the Covid pandemic has highlighted
        new tool in the arena is the discovery of the   the serious consequences of ill health,
        ‘epigenetic clock’ – pioneered by Professor   especially among the elderly. While lifespan
        Steve Horvath at UCLA.              extension still appears elusive, increasing
          Epigenetics is the study of processes   the ‘healthspan’ (years in good health) could
        that  can  change  gene  expression,  without   have major implications for ageing Western
        changing the DNA sequence itself. One   societies  and  their  overburdened  health
        such change is DNA methylation, which can   systems.
        activate  or  turn  off  individual  genes.  With   The numerous studies employing this new
        ageing, DNA methylation appears to change   research tool have revealed that many of
        in a predictable manner. The speed of this   our previously thought healthy habits indeed
        is  slightly  different  for  everyone,  based  on   are  associated  with  slower  epidemiologic
        genetics  and  likely  lifestyle.  This  new  tool   ageing, including avoidance of obesity,   Cross-validation study of human-cat clocks
        based on analysis of the epigenetic data   smoking, and following a healthy diet (high    applied to human tissue sample
        of an individual can reveal their ‘biological   vegetable and fish intake) and exercising.
        age’. While everyone’s  chronological age   Another exciting area of ageing research   these species, which is paving the way for
        advances at the same speed, individual’s   is the search of anti-ageing interventions,   new discoveries of the molecular details of
        ‘biological clocks’ have different paces.   which were mostly limited previously to   this process. If an anti-ageing intervention is
          The  application  of  this  clock  on  large   animal models, due to the length of time it   successful to slow the biologic clock in one
        human epidemiological data sets revealed   would take to study it in humans.   mammalian species, it is likely to work in
        that  discordance  between  the  predicted   An exciting recent collaboration between   humans and other mammals, opening novel
        (epigenetic age) and chronological age   ºÚÁÏÉç scientist Dr Balázs Szladovits, Dr Ken   possibilities within this field.
        is  associated with diverse age-related   Raj from Public Health England and Professor   This exciting collaboration was made
        pathologies, when the former is greater than   Steve Horvath of UCLA has resulted in the   possible  by  all  the  clinical  samples  that
        the latter. Since then, an ever-increasing   development of an epigenetic clock for cats,   are submitted to the ºÚÁÏÉç’s Diagnostic
        scope of pathologies have been found to   and even a dual clock for cats and humans   Laboratories, from which residual samples
        be  associated  with  accelerated  epigenetic   based on the same mathematical algorithm   are stored in our valuable DNA bank, under
        ageing. These features are consistent with   that assesses the age as a percent of the   strict ethical regulations.
        the view that the epigenetic clock in effect   known maximal lifespan, therefore bridging   With this novel epigenetic clock for cats,
        measures  biological  age  –  which  is  an   the large age difference between ourselves   the transatlantic research group’s goal is
        indicator of health; a notion that is supported   and our companions with remarkably high   to  apply  this  tool  in  studying  the  ageing
        by  the  clock’s  ability  to  predict  time-to-  correlation. Furthermore, this collaboration   and  disease  processes  of  cats,  both  for
        pathology  and  all-cause  (non-accidental)   has also valuably contributed to the work   their  own  benefit,  but  also  as  a  model  for
        mortality.                          of the Mammalian Methylation Consortium,   humans, given the similar environment our
                                                                                companions live in (compared to laboratory
                                                                                animals in artificial environments).
                                                                                  Lastly, but not least, given the precision of
                                                                                the new epigenetic clock, it could even be
                                                                                an invaluable tool for age determination in
                                                                                the forensic field, with much higher accuracy
                                                                                than was previously possible.





                                                                                        For the Diagnostic Pathology Service,
                                                                                       please call:01707 666 208
         Biological age can be contrasted with chronological age as a result of epigenetics research  py    Email:
                                                                                       diagnosticlabs@rvc.ac.uk
        10   Spring 2022
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