Sleep traits causally affect epigenetic age acceleration: a Mendelian randomization study.

Wen Zhao, Shiyao Yu, Yan Xu, Huijuan Liao, Daiyi Chen, Ting Lu, Zhixuan Ren, Lijuan Ge, Jianhui Liu, Jingbo Sun

The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China. · pubmed

Paper

Abstract

Sleep disorders (SDs) are a common issue in the elderly. Epigenetic clocks based on DNA methylation (DNAm) are now considered highly accurate predictors of the aging process and are associated with age-related diseases. This study aimed to investigate the causal relationship between sleep traits and the epigenetic clock using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. The genome-wide association study (GWAS) statistics for epigenetic clocks (HannumAge, intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration [IEAA], PhenoAge, and GrimAge) and sleep traits were obtained from the UK Biobank (UKB), 23andMe and Finngen. Moreover, crucial instrumental variables (IVs) were evaluated. Inverse variance weighted (IVW), MR-Egger, weighted median (WM), weighted mode, and simple mode methods were employed to assess the causal relationship between them. Multiple analyses were performed for quality control evaluation. Our study showed that self-reported insomnia may speed up the aging process by GrimAge clock, while GrimAge acceleration could faintly reduce self-reported insomnia. Epigenetic clocks mainly influence sleep traits by PhenoAge and GrimAge with weak effects. This may indicate that early interventions of SDs could be a breaking point for aging and age-related diseases. Further studies are required to elucidate the potential mechanisms involved.

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Research summary

Self-reported insomnia may accelerate aging as measured by the GrimAge clock. The study explores the causal relationship between sleep traits and epigenetic aging, suggesting that addressing sleep disorders could have implications for aging and age-related diseases.

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