Monday, October 30, 2023

How Old Are Your Eyes? New 'Clock' Could Reveal Disease Risk

Amazing stuff! About the connection between diseases and aging. Single cell analysis could have huge potential in other areas as well!

"... The team, led by researchers ... adapted a technique used for analyzing eye fluid. Almost 6,000 proteins detected in the fluid could be traced back to the eye's cells, 26 of which were collectively linked to eye aging.
This was done through an artificial intelligence system trained on the eye fluid of 46 healthy patients, where ages could be cross-referenced. In further tests, the AI was able to predict someone's age from their eye fluid (give or take a few years). ..."

"... “This is one of the best connections ever made that suggests disease triggers accelerated aging,” ..."

"Highlights
• Trace the cellular origin of >5,900 proteins in locally enriched fluid compartments
• Assess disease states at cellular resolution in non-regenerative organs in living humans
• AI proteomic clocks reveal accelerated cell aging in non-age-related diseases
• Molecular dysfunction of retinal cells during brain disease
Summary
Single-cell analysis in living humans is essential for understanding disease mechanisms, but it is impractical in non-regenerative organs, such as the eye and brain, because tissue biopsies would cause serious damage. We resolve this problem by integrating proteomics of liquid biopsies with single-cell transcriptomics from all known ocular cell types to trace the cellular origin of 5,953 proteins detected in the aqueous humor. We identified hundreds of cell-specific protein markers, including for individual retinal cell types. Surprisingly, our results reveal that retinal degeneration occurs in Parkinson’s disease, and the cells driving diabetic retinopathy switch with disease stage. Finally, we developed artificial intelligence (AI) models to assess individual cellular aging and found that many eye diseases not associated with chronological age undergo accelerated molecular aging of disease-specific cell types. Our approach, which can be applied to other organ systems, has the potential to transform molecular diagnostics and prognostics while uncovering new cellular disease and aging mechanisms."

How Old Are Your Eyes? New 'Clock' Could Reveal Disease Risk : ScienceAlert

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