Epigenetic Clocks and Their Prospective Application in the Complex Landscape of Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Nowadays, scientists are making efforts to elucidate the mechanisms involved in the phenotypic changes underlying the aging process in order to develop favorable therapeutical interventions. Epigenetic modifications, in particular DNA methylation, play a crucial role in the aging process, and this parameter has been used to set epigenetic clocks, algorithms that predict an individual's biological age based on a defined set of CpGs. In this review, we focus on the most recent literature to discuss the use of epigenetic clocks in the context of cognitive decline and dysregulation of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related gene expression. We have summarized all published scientific papers in which epigenetic clocks have been applied to measure age acceleration in blood and brain specimens from patients affected with AD. Progressive age acceleration, consistent with a specific DNA methylation signature, was observed in patients affected by AD, and it was correlated with the onset of complex diseases, mitochondrial alterations, dementia and cognitive decline, even in the early stages of these conditions. The use of epigenetic clocks might be a valuable biomarker to enable an earlier identification of ideal measures to reverse modifications caused by aging and to mitigate multiple aspects of disease/aging mechanisms.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; DNA methylation; aging; cognitive decline; epigenetic clocks; epigenetics.