TY - JOUR
AU - Cao, Xue
AU - Li, Wenjuan
AU - Wang, Ting
AU - Ran, Dongzhi
AU - Davalos, Veronica
AU - Planas-Serra, Laura
AU - Pujol, Aurora
AU - Esteller, Manel
AU - Wang, Xiaolin
AU - Yu, Huichuan
PY - 2022
DA - April
TI - Accelerated biological aging in COVID-19 patients
JO - Nature Communications
VL - 13
DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29801-8
AB - Chronological age is a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19. Previous findings indicate that epigenetic age could be altered in viral infection. However, the epigenetic aging in COVID-19 has not been well studied. In this study, DNA methylation of the blood samples from 232 healthy individuals and 413 COVID-19 patients is profiled using EPIC methylation array. Epigenetic ages of each individual are determined by applying epigenetic clocks and telomere length estimator to the methylation profile of the individual. Epigenetic age acceleration is calculated and compared between groups. We observe strong correlations between the epigenetic clocks and individual’s chronological age (r&gt; 0.8,p&lt; 0.0001). We also find the increasing acceleration of epigenetic aging and telomere attrition in the sequential blood samples from healthy individuals and infected patients developing non-severe and severe COVID-19. In addition, the longitudinal DNA methylation profiling analysis find that the accumulation of epigenetic aging from COVID-19 syndrome could be partly reversed at late clinic phases in some patients. In conclusion, accelerated epigenetic aging is associated with the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and developing severe COVID-19. In addition, the accumulation of epigenetic aging from COVID-19 may contribute to the post-COVID-19 syndrome among survivors.
PB - Springer Nature
UR - https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/7af070d4-15b7-4b5d-8996-4da0e3af2d4c
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
KW - Older people
ER