Age-Related Hearing Impairment: Genome and Blood Methylome Data Integration Reveals Candidate Epigenetic Biomarkers.

Jie Yu, Jingjing Zhu, Hua Zhong, Zicheng Zhang, Jiawen Liu, Xin Lin, Guanghua Zeng, Min Zhang, Chong Wu, Youping Deng, Yanfa Sun, Lang Wu

College of Life Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Animal Infectious Diseases and Biotechnology, Fujian Provincial Universities Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology (Longyan University), Longyan University, Longyan, P. R. China.College of Life Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Animal Infectious Diseases and Biotechnology, Fujian Provincial Universities Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology (Longyan University), Longyan University, Longyan, P. R. China. · pubmed

Paper

Abstract

Age-related hearing impairment (ARHI) is a major planetary health burden that is in need of precision medicine for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The present study was set out to identify candidate epigenetic markers for ARHI. Associations of genetically predicted DNA methylation levels with ARHI risk were evaluated using two sets of blood DNA methylation genetic prediction models in 147,997 cases and 575,269 controls of European descent. A total of 1314 CpG sites (CpGs) were significantly associated with ARHI risk at a false discovery rate (FDR) <0.05, including 12 putatively causal CpGs based on fine-mapping analysis. Measured methylation levels of 247 of the associated CpGs were significantly correlated with measured expression levels of 127 nearby genes in blood at an FDR <0.05. A total of 37 CpGs and their 18 nearby genes showed consistent association directions for the methylation-gene expression-ARHI risk pathway. Importantly, three genes (

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Research summary

The paper investigates age-related hearing impairment (ARHI) through the lens of epigenetic biomarkers, which can be considered a step towards understanding the biological mechanisms underlying aging. While it does not directly address the root causes of aging or lifespan extension, it contributes to the broader understanding of age-related diseases and their molecular underpinnings. The findings may have implications for precision medicine in aging, but the impact is limited to a specific condition rather than a transformative advance in the field of longevity research.

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