Methylation-Based Biological Age and Cancer Risk
Changes in DNA methylation levels with age, and it has been widely studied as a well-known biomarker of aging. A number of DNA methylation age clocks have appeared and been used, and when the age predicted by the methylation clock is greater than the actual age, it is considered to have “age acceleration”, which is also called the biological measure of aging.
Research suggests a correlation between aging and cancer as well. Predicted ages obtained by DNA methylation analysis are greater than actual ages, indicating age acceleration, and these phenomena may also be strongly associated with cancer risk. By analyzing the age acceleration of DNA methylation to discover their association with increased cancer risk or shorter survival, it could help to understand specific relationship between the aging process and cancer development, developing DNA methylation as a tool for predicting cancer risk.
What Can We Do?
We provide methylation age and age acceleration measurements. Age prediction by our unique DNA methylation clock technology yields excellent prediction accuracy, and then age acceleration is estimated from the residuals of a linear regression of actual age against predicted age.
DNA methylation age
The collected samples are subjected to genome-wide DNA methylation analysis to determine the DNA methylation level at each CpG locus and to calculate the DNA methylation age of the sample individuals based on a predictive model.
Age acceleration
The predicted age is regressed on the actual age, and the age acceleration is calculated according to the residual term of the univariate model, which indicates that the predicted age is greater than the actual age when the result is positive