Accepted_test

Epigenetic age acceleration and colorectal cancer in an ageing population cohort

by Sofia Malyutina | Olga Chervova | Vladimir Maximov | Tatiana Nikitenko | Scientific Research Institute of Internal and Preventive Medicine - Branch of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, SB RAS | University College London, London, UK | Scientific Research Institute of Internal and Preventive Medicine - Branch of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, SB RAS | Scientific Research Institute of Internal and Preventive Medicine - Branch of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, SB RAS

Abstract ID: 452

Event: BGRS-abstracts

Sections: Section “Genetics and systems biology of aging”

Ageing is one of the most important risk factor of colorectal cancer (CRC), its contribution largely depends on ‘biological age’ which reflects an individual rate of health decline. We aimed to investigate the relationship between acceleration of six markers of the epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) and incident colorectal cancer during a 16-year follow-up in a nested case-control study from a population cohort of middle and older age in Russia.

In a nested case-control design, we randomly selected 35 cases of CRC from an entire set of incident colorectal cancer (154), and 354 matched controls. The assessment of DNAm was conducted on Illumina EPIC850k Beadchip. Six baseline EA measures (Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge, Skin and Blood (SB), BLUP, Elastic Net (EN)) were calculated, along with their respective EAA.

In this case-control study based on a population cohort of middle and elderly age, we found a direct association between incident CRC and four markers of accelerated baseline epigenetic age (Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge, and BLUP). In contrast, two markers showed a negative or no association. These results warrant further exploration in larger cohorts and may have implications for CRC risk assessment and prevention.