ArticleMetabolic brain disease2020
Accelerated epigenetic aging in adolescents from low-income households is associated with altered development of brain structures.
Article in Metabolic brain disease, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Using Epigenetic Clocks to Characterize Biological Aging in Studies of Children and Childhood Exposures: a Systematic Review.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2023Pooled it
- Epigenetic Aging and Cognitive Performance in General and Psychiatric Populations: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- An epigenetic framework for understanding contextual influences on neural and socio-emotional development: Narrative review and case-study of the oxytocin receptor.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- Associations between epigenetic age and brain age in young people.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Prenatal and childhood lead exposure is prospectively associated with biological markers of aging in adolescence.The Science of the total environment · 2024Article
- Persistent accelerated epigenetic ageing in a longitudinal cohort of vertically infected HIV-positive adolescents.Journal of neurovirology · 2023Article
- Genome-Environment Interactions and Psychiatric Disorders.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Epigenetic clock analysis of blood samples in drug-naive first-episode schizophrenia patients.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Community and domestic violence are associated with DNA methylation GrimAge acceleration and heart rate variability in adolescents.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2023Article
- Developmental Brain Injury and Social Determinants of Health: Opportunities to Combine Preclinical Models for Mechanistic Insights into Recovery.Developmental neuroscience · 2023Review
- Low birthweight is associated with epigenetic age acceleration in the first 3 years of life.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2023Article
- Epigenetic clocks in relapse after a first episode of schizophrenia.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2022Article
- Epigenetic Clock Deceleration and Maternal Reproductive Efforts: Associations With Increasing Gray Matter Volume of the Precuneus.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Article
- Disparities in Surgical Oncology: Management of Advanced Cancer.Annals of surgical oncology · 2021Review
- Postpartum sleep loss and accelerated epigenetic aging.Sleep health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The relationship between cognitive performance, macro and microstructural brain anatomy and accelerated aging as measured by a highly accurate epigenetic biomarker of aging known as the epigenetic clock in healthy adolescents has not been studied. Healthy adolescents enrolled in the Cape Town Adolescent Antiretroviral Cohort Study were studied cross sectionally. The Illumina Infinium Methylation EPIC array was used to generate DNA methylation data from the blood samples of 44 adolescents aged 9 to 12 years old. The epigenetic clock software and method was used to estimate two measures, epigenetic age acceleration residual (AAR) and extrinsic epigenetic age acceleration (EEAA). Each participant underwent neurocognitive testing, T1 structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Correlation tests were run between the two epigenetic aging measures and 10 cognitive functioning domains, to assess for differences in cognitive performance as epigenetic aging increases. In order to investigate the associations of epigenetic age acceleration on brain structure, we developed stepwise multiple regression models in R (version 3.4.3, 2017) including grey and white matter volumes, cortical thickness, and cortical surface area, as well as DTI measures of white matter microstructural integrity. In addition to negatively affecting two cognitive domains, visual memory (p = .026) and visual spatial acuity (p = .02), epigenetic age acceleration was associated with alterations of brain volumes, cortical thickness, cortical surface areas and abnormalities in neuronal microstructure in a range of regions. Stress was a significant predictor (p = .029) of AAR. Understanding the drivers of epigenetic age acceleration in adolescents could lead to valuable insights into the development of neurocognitive impairment in adolescents.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.