Researchers have developed a transcription-based clock designed to estimate brain age, with the goal of finding interventions for age-related neurodegeneration.

This innovative clock was created using data from various studies, including those on Alzheimer's and traumatic brain injury, and involved 778 healthy individuals aged between 20 and 97.

Utilizing 365 genes, the clock demonstrates high accuracy in estimating chronological age, achieving an average error of just 2.55 years in test sets.

The research indicated significant correlations between brain age and neurodegenerative disorders, revealing that patients with more severe symptoms tend to have older brain ages as indicated by the clock.

Additionally, the study found that anti-inflammatory compounds could reduce transcriptomic age, with 23 compounds showing potential for lifespan extension in animal aging models.

Among the notable rejuvenators identified for neuronal progenitor cells (NPCs) were BGT-226 and WYE-354, both mTOR inhibitors previously tested as cancer drugs, alongside other compounds like alvocivid and iloprost.

In experiments involving 18-month-old mice, a combination of three compounds was administered, resulting in transcriptomic changes that suggested functional rejuvenation, although the applicability to humans remains uncertain.

The research analyzed a total of 4,047 chemical and genetic perturbations affecting neurons and 5,770 affecting NPCs, identifying 971 rejuvenating perturbations for NPCs and 68 for neurons.

Further research is necessary to explore the potential of this clock in discovering new drugs or repurposing existing ones to combat brain aging.