Reacción a "Universal molecular ‘clocks’ of ageing and mortality identified in mammals"

Ageing is the main risk factor for most chronic diseases, from cancer to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. However, we still only partially understand its cellular and molecular mechanisms. In this context, the present study represents an important advance by integrating transcriptomic analyses from more than 11,000 samples across different organs and mammalian species, together with experimental data and large-scale bioinformatic analyses, to propose a potential molecular ‘clock’ of ageing and lifespan. The fact that many of these pathways are conserved across species reinforces their biological relevance and suggests that they may represent fundamental mechanisms of ageing. Among the biomarkers identified, Cdkn1a stands out, as it encodes the p21 protein, which plays a key role in the regulation of cellular senescence.

These findings could have important applications in preventive medicine, enabling earlier identification of individuals at greater risk of developing age-related diseases and allowing more refined clinical monitoring. They could also help address one of the major challenges in the field: the lack of reliable biomarkers to assess the effectiveness of anti-senescence or anti-ageing therapies in humans. This study provides promising candidates in that direction.

Nevertheless, the results should be interpreted with caution, as they are likely to reflect both mechanisms driving ageing and the consequences of the ageing process itself. In this regard, it would be particularly interesting to investigate how these biomarkers behave in populations that are exceptionally resilient to ageing, such as centenarians.