Brain age gap as biomarker linking cardiovascular diseases genetic susceptibility and causality.

Shangying Lyu, Ruixia Zhang, Kai Peng, Guanglei Yu, Zhixuan Zhang, Kai Wang, Xuehua Bi

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in iScience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed

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1 · What the graph read from it

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0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Shangying LyuCollege of Medical Engineering and Technology, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830017, China.

Ruixia ZhangCollege of Medical Engineering and Technology, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830017, China.

Kai PengHealth Management Center, Kaifeng Central Hospital, Kaifeng 475000, China.

Guanglei YuCollege of Medical Engineering and Technology, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830017, China.

Zhixuan ZhangSchool of Public Health, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830017, China.

Kai WangCollege of Medical Engineering and Technology, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830017, China.

Xuehua BiCollege of Medical Engineering and Technology, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi 830017, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain a primary cause of global mortality, underscoring the need for biomarkers that capture systemic aging risks. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from UK Biobank (UKB) participants were utilized to develop a three-dimensional vision transformer (3D-ViT) model for predicting brain age and computing BAG, an imaging-derived indicator of biological aging. Causal BAG-CVD relationships were assessed through bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR). The results substantiated significant brain-heart interactions, revealing that acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and chronic ischemic heart disease (CIH) were associated with decelerated brain aging (OR = 0.783; OR = 0.847), while an elevated BAG correlated with a reduced risk of AMI and CIH (OR = 0.954; OR = 0.969). These findings highlight BAG as an integrative indicator combining neuroimaging and genetic profiles. The observed bidirectional causality offers a biological framework for defining intervention strategies targeting comorbid brain and cardiovascular health.

Indexed as

health informaticshealth sciencesmedicineneurology

Identifiers

PMID41994335

DOI10.1016/j.isci.2026.114987

PMCPMC13080494

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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.