# The risk of early death can be assessed by just two parameters

The activity of two genes — CDKN1A and LGALS3 — may indicate accelerated aging of the body and an increased risk of early death. This discovery was made by scientists at Harvard Medical School, who studied more than 11,000 tissue samples from humans, macaques, rats, and mice. The results of this large-scale study were published in the journal Nature.

The research team set themselves an ambitious goal — to find molecular markers of aging that manifest identically across different biological species and in various cell types. Analysis of an enormous dataset made it possible to identify a group of genes whose activity changes predictably with age. Among them, CDKN1A and LGALS3 stood out in particular: the proteins associated with these genes were found to be directly linked to the development of several chronic diseases at once and a higher risk of premature death.

The study also demonstrated that aging is driven not by one, but by several biological processes simultaneously. Among the key mechanisms are chronic inflammation, accumulation of DNA damage, decreased efficiency of cellular metabolism, and gradual cellular "exhaustion."

To track these changes more precisely, the scientists created special "aging clocks" — an algorithm that assesses the biological age of various cells and tissues. This system is capable of determining which specific processes in the body are aging faster than others.

The new tool helped establish that chronic diseases accelerate aging primarily by intensifying inflammatory processes. However, there are also encouraging findings: certain interventions can slow this process down. Experiments on animals and cell cultures confirmed the positive effects of caloric restriction, as well as a number of cellular rejuvenation and reprogramming methods.

The authors of the study are confident that the discovered biomarkers could form the basis for new methods of assessing biological age and predicting health risks. In the long term, this will help doctors identify individuals with accelerated aging and develop more effective strategies for preventing age-related diseases.