Observational studyClinical epigenetics2020
Longitudinal analysis of healthy colon establishes aspirin as a suppressor of cancer-related epigenetic aging.
Observational study in Clinical epigenetics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Impact of Maternal Aspirin Therapy on Neonatal Epigenetic Patterns.American journal of perinatology · 2026Article
- Unraveling the complexity of skin's biological aging utilizing epigenetic clocks.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- Analysis of prenatal medication use and placental epigenetic gestational age in extremely low gestational age newborns (ELGANs) highlight relationships to aspirin use during pregnancy.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Article
- Trends in intestinal aging: From underlying mechanisms to therapeutic strategies.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2025Review
- Aging and cancer epigenetics: Where do the paths fork?Aging cell · 2022Review
- Geroscience-guided repurposing of FDA-approved drugs to target aging: A proposed process and prioritization.Aging cell · 2022Review
- Long-term Aspirin Use and Epigenetic Mitotic Clocks for Cancer Risk Prediction: Findings in Healthy Colon Mucosa and Recommendations for Future Epigenetic Aging Studies.Epigenetics communications · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundColon cancer (CC) is the third most common cancer worldwide, highlighting the importance of developing effective prevention strategies. Accumulating evidence supports that aspirin use reduces CC incidence. We reported previously that aspirin suppresses age-associated and CC-relevant DNA methylation (DNAm) in healthy colon. Here we addressed the aspirin's effectiveness in longitudinal cohort.
methodsWe measured genome-wide DNAm in 124 healthy normal mucosa samples taken at baseline (time point 1, t1) and after 10-years follow-up (time point 2, t2) from a longitudinal female screening cohort. We investigated the time-dependent methylation drift in aspirin users and nonusers using multivariable regression and related the modulatory effect of aspirin to colonic epigenome-aging and CC.
resultsOver time, compared to nonusers, long-term (≥ 2 years) aspirin users showed less hypermethylated CpGs (proximal: 17% vs. 87%; distal: 16% vs. 70%) and more hypomethylated CpGs (proximal: 83% vs. 13%; distal: 84% vs. 30%). Overall, users showed 2% (P = 0.02) less mean methylation levels than nonusers in proximal colon and displayed repressed methylation age (mAge). Methylation loss in users occurred at several CC-specific tumor suppressors that gained methylation in nonusers. Methylation loss in users effected genes involved in immune system and inflammation, while methylation gain in nonusers effected genes involved in metabolism.
conclusionsThis is the first longitudinal study demonstrating effectiveness of aspirin-use in suppression of age-related and CC-relevant hypermethylation in the normal colon. These findings provide a rationale for future studies to evaluate loci that may serve as markers to identify individuals that will benefit most from aspirin and hence increase its efficiency in CC prevention and therapy.
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