Application of biological age as a measure of an individual´s health status offers new perspectives into extension of both lifespan and healthspan. We present a community-based cohort study of 1930 participants with a mean age of 72 years and a follow-up period of over 7 years, using two variants of a phenotypic blood-based algorithm that either excludes (BioAge1) or includes (BioAge2) neurofilament light chain (NfL) as a neurodegenerative marker. BioAge1 and BioAge2 predict dementia equally well, as well as lifespan and healthspan. We additionally tested the association of microRNAs with age and identified 263 microRNAs significantly associated with biological and chronological age alike. Top differentially expressed microRNAs based on biological age had a higher significance level than those based on chronological age, suggesting that biological age captures aspects of aging signals at the epigenetic level.

Biological age in healthy elderly predicts aging-related diseases including dementia. Wu JW, Yaqub A, Ma Y, Koudstaal W, Hofman A, Ikram MA, Ghanbari M, Goudsmit J. Sci Rep. 2021 Aug 5;11(1):15929. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-95425-5.