EPIgenetic biomarkers in healthy Metabolic, mUscular, Sensorimotor, Cardiorespiratory and cOgnitive ageing: the EPIMUSCO study

The EPIMUSCO study will focus on the dynamics of epigenetic ageing biomarkers over time to give novel insights into individual ageing patterns at the metabolic, muscular, sensorimotor, cardiorespiratory and cognitive level. This will be the first study to link accurate, gold-standard measures of muscular, metabolic and cardiorespiratory fitness, with leading-edge measures of biological ageing over two decades, within the Leuven Longitudinal Study on Lifestyle, Fitness and Health (LLSLFH) and Steunpunt Sport (Beweging en Gezondheid) cohorts (SSBG 1&3). Rich phenotypic information on healthy ageing parameters, such as cognitive functioning, sensorimotor behavior, and functional power tests, will be included in the new wave. While we already know factors that promote healthy ageing at the population level, substantial individual differences in muscular, metabolic, and cardiorespiratory ageing trajectories remain unexplained. This application will address this critical gap by tracking first-grade phenotypic and molecular measures of ageing over a 10- to 20-year period in humans, getting us closer to the development of targeted, precision medicine approaches against ageing. Furthermore, the collection of molecular data across the entire epigenome will unravel new biological pathways involved in individual ‘healthy’ ageing patterns. Finally, we will uncover how genetic, epigenetic, and lifestyle factors interact to determine individual ageing trajectories.