Medical News Observer

• Penn State’s study explores the impact of early life adversity and psychiatric disorders on adult neurocognitive abilities.
• Utilizes data from FGDS and BeCOME studies, examining various epigenetic age acceleration clocks.
• Results indicate epigenetic aging as a biomarker for neurocognitive decline, aiding in early identification and prevention.

A recent study led by the Penn State Center for Healthy Aging investigates the relationship between early life adversity/stress, psychiatric disorders, and the decline in neurocognitive abilities in adulthood, focusing on the role of epigenetic age acceleration as a potential biomarker.

The research examined five different epigenetic age acceleration clocks using data from two independent cohorts: the Female Growth and Development Study (FGDS) and the Biological Classification of Mental Disorders (BeCOME) study. FGDS is a 30-year prospective cohort study involving individuals with a history of child sexual abuse and non-abused controls, while BeCOME focuses on adults with psychiatric disorders.

These studies provided a diverse range of data, including blood samples and cognitive performance testing, from individuals in the U.S. and Germany. The results showed that a faster pace of biological aging, as indicated by the DunedinPoAm clock, was linked to lower general cognitive abilities in both study cohorts and to slower speeded cognitive abilities in the BeCOME group. However, they also noted significant variations in the specific genetic indicators of cognitive decline between the two datasets, using other biological clocks like Horvath, PhenoAge, Hannum and GrimAge.

These findings suggest that epigenetic age acceleration could be a useful biomarker for identifying adults who have experienced early life adversity or psychiatric disorders and are at risk of neurocognitive decline. This could potentially enable early screening and prevention strategies for those most likely to benefit.

Ref: Felt, John M., Natan Yusupov, Karra D. Harrington, Julia Fietz, Zhenyu “Zach” Zhang, Martin J. Sliwinski, Nilam Ram, et al. 2023. “Epigenetic Age Acceleration as a Biomarker for Impaired Cognitive Abilities in Adulthood Following Early Life Adversity and Psychiatric Disorders.” Neurobiology of Stress 27 (November): 100577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynstr.2023.100577.