Acta Neuropathologica: The acceleration of the age of DNA methylation is associated with the age and survival of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), including C9orf72 carriers and identical twins, have highly variable disease characteristics (such as course of disease and age/site of onset), indicating the effects of epigenetic variation.
DNA methylation (DNAm) is an important epigenetic modification associated with the risk of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases.
cumulative assessment of DNAm levels on age-related CpG, multi-tissue DNAm age can be estimated, which may be more accurate than the chronological age.
this paper, a genome-wide survey of DNAm in blood or central nervous system (CNS) tissue samples in patients with primary exudative ALS, and the relationship between DNAm age acceleration and disease age and survival was assessed.
method: Taking into account the reported three-year error in the assessment of DNAm age, patients were divided into three groups: normal age group (n-82, DNAm age accelerated between -3 and 3 years old, median s.5 years), slow aging group (n-125, DNAm age acceleration;lt;3 years, median -6.3 years) and rapid aging (n?42, DNAm acceleration;
results: Multiple linear regression analysis found a highly significant correlation between the accelerated age of blood-derived DNAm and the age of alS on set of onset.
the acceleration of DNAm age based on the blood/central nervous system was significantly correlated with the age and survival of alS patients with unknown genetic causes, suggesting a new epigenetic modification factor.
Zhang, M., McKeever, P.M., Xi, Z. et al. DNA age age is with alS age of onset and survival. Acta Neuropathol 139, 943-946 (2020 !-- !--).