Researchers built a composite SASP Score from 38 senescence-associated secretory proteins measured in blood, using a guided autoencoder-transformer model trained on UK Biobank proteomics. The score independently predicted all-cause mortality and incident dementia, COPD, myocardial infarction, and stroke, outperforming any single protein. In an independent randomized trial, 18 months of multimodal exercise altered the score's trajectory, indicating the measure responds to intervention.
Key Points
- Composite blood score quantifies systemic senescent cell burden from 38 proteins
- Independently predicts mortality, dementia, COPD, myocardial infarction, and stroke
- Multimodal exercise shifted score trajectory over 18 months
Longevity Analysis
Senescent cells signal outward, and their secreted proteins carry that signal through circulation to tissues far from the original site — which is precisely why a blood-based composite reads more faithfully than any single marker. The practical value lies in responsiveness: a measure that moves with 18 months of structured training converts an abstract hallmark of aging into something trackable across an intervention window. For clinicians evaluating geroscience protocols, this offers a route to distinguish interventions that genuinely lower inflammatory and regenerative burden from those that merely appear plausible.
Original published by Wiley Aging Cell, by Shangshu Zhao, Chia‐Ling Kuo, Eric J. Lenze, Julie L. Wetherell, Laura Haynes, Perla El‐Ahmad, Richard Fortinsky, George Kuchel, Trevor Harris, Breno S. Diniz .