Aging and rejuvenation - a modular epigenome model

CHIAVELLINI, PRISCILA; CANATELLI-MALLAT, MARTINA; LEHMANN, MARIANNE; GALLARDO, MARIA D.; HERENU, CLAUDIA B.; CORDEIRO, JOSE L.; CLEMENT, JAMES; GOYA, RODOLFO G.

Aging

Impact journals

Año: 2021 vol. 13 p. 4734 - 4734

1945-4589

he view of aging has evolved in parallel with the advances in biomedical sciences. Long considered as an irreversible process where interventions were only aimed at slowing down its progression, breakthrough discoveries like animal cloning and cell reprogramming have deeply changed our understanding of postnatal development, giving rise to the emerging view that the epigenome is the driver of aging. The idea was significantly strengthened by the converging discovery that DNA methylation (DNAm) at specific CpG sites could be used as a highly accurate biomarker of age defined by an algorithm known as the Horvath clock. It was at this point where epigenetic rejuvenation came into play as a strategy to reveal to what extent biological age can be set back by making the clock tick backwards. Initial evidence suggests that when the clock is forced to tick backwards in vivo, it is only able to drag the phenotype to a partially rejuvenated condition. In order to explain the results, a bimodula