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Aging clocks

GrimAge

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GrimAge is a second-generation epigenetic clock introduced by Lu et al. (2019, with Steve Horvath as senior author). Instead of predicting chronological age, it is trained on time-to-death and combines DNA-methylation surrogates for seven plasma proteins (e.g. PAI-1, GDF-15) and DNAm-based smoking pack-years. In multiple cohorts GrimAge and the updated GrimAge2 (2022) outperform earlier clocks at predicting all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer. It is widely used in research; clinical use as a diagnostic endpoint remains investigational.

Sources

  1. Lu AT, Quach A, Wilson JG, Reiner AP, Aviv A, Raj K, Hou L, Baccarelli AA, Li Y, Stewart JD, Whitsel EA, Assimes TL, Ferrucci L, Horvath S. (2019). DNA methylation GrimAge strongly predicts lifespan and healthspan. *Aging (Albany NY)*doi:10.18632/aging.101684