News Releases & Research Results Association of cardiovascular biomarkers and plasma albumin with exceptional survival to the highest ages - Elucidation of a biological characteristic of supercentenarians -

News Releases & Research Results

Outline

The results of research conducted by Full-time Lecturer Yasumichi Arai, Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Takumi Hirata (at the time of the research), and Specially Invited Associate Professor Nobuyoshi Hirose (at the time of the research) of the Center for Supercentenarian Medical Research, Keio University Medical School, Professor Yuichi Oike of the Department of Molecular Genetics, Kumamoto University Graduate School of Life Sciences, and Professor Tetsuo Adachi of the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmaceutics, Gifu Pharmaceutical University.

The key results of research are as follows:

  • A cohort study was conducted in 1,427 elderly people, including 36 supercentenarians (those aged ≥110 years) to examine the association between blood cardiovascular disease biomarkers and prognoses.
  • NT-proBNP*, a biomarker of heart failure, was associated with the prognoses of the oldest elderly independently of the classical risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.
    *Abbreviation for N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide. The blood level of NT-proBNP, which reflects cardiac functions, is mainly employed for the diagnosis of heart failure and the determination of severity.
  • NT-proBNP was strongly associated with life expectancy particularly after the age of 105. Specifically, those with lower blood levels of this molecule were more likely to live to 110 and older.
  • The results of this research project should facilitate the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, which increase with the aging of society, and the development of new therapies.

This program was supported by the Program for an Integrated Database of Clinical and Genomic Information and the Platform Program for Promotion of Genome Medicine by AMED.

The results were published online in the British scientific journal Nature Communications on July 30.

Article

Hirata T., et al. Associations of Cardiovascular Biomarkers and Plasma Albumin with Exceptional Survival to the Highest Ages Nature Communications
DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-17636-0

07/30/20

Last updated 07/30/20