Biological aging and heart health link to lung disease risk
A study of 181,955 UK Biobank participants linked accelerated biological aging and lower cardiovascular health to higher risks of chronic respiratory diseases.
Clinical Epigenetics
In a prospective cohort of 181,955 UK Biobank participants, researchers examined how cardiovascular health and biological aging relate to chronic respiratory disease risk. They assessed cardiovascular health using the Life’s Essential 8 score and biological aging using phenotypic age acceleration. Higher phenotypic age acceleration was associated with increased risks of overall chronic respiratory diseases, as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Conversely, higher cardiovascular health scores were linked to lower disease risks. Participants with both high cardiovascular health and biologically younger status had the lowest risks, while the combination of low cardiovascular health and advanced biological age conferred excess risk. Subsequent Mendelian randomization and colocalization analyses prioritized 287 aging-related and 42 cardiovascular-related DNA methylation sites, suggesting that 14 sites may influence respiratory disease risk through expression changes in eight mapped genes.
Why it matters
The findings suggest that biological aging markers and systemic cardiovascular health jointly track with chronic pulmonary disease risk. Identifying shared epigenetic features may help pinpoint candidate molecular pathways connecting organismal aging to lung pathology.
Caveats
The primary findings rely on observational cohort data, which cannot determine causality and may be influenced by residual confounding. Furthermore, the downstream epigenetic and gene expression pathways derive from Mendelian randomization models that depend on specific genetic assumptions.
The paper
Wenzhou Medical University · Changsha Central Hospital
Clinical Epigenetics · 4 Oct 2026 · CC BY-NC-ND