This study looked at whether blood protein markers that show how fast a person is aging are connected to brain vessel disease, known as cerebral small vessel disease. It involved people from two long-term US community studies: the ARIC study with about 1,500 participants in midlife and late-life, and the MESA study with around 900 participants. Researchers measured proteomic aging clocks and proteomic age acceleration from blood samples to see if higher levels were linked to brain issues like white matter hyperintensities, infarcts, and microbleeds.
In the ARIC study, higher proteomic age acceleration in midlife was associated with a 25% greater volume of white matter hyperintensities and higher odds of subcortical infarcts. In late-life, it was linked to a 20% greater volume of white matter hyperintensities and higher odds of various infarcts and microbleeds. In the MESA study, higher late-life proteomic age acceleration was associated with a 28% greater volume of white matter hyperintensities, but not with microbleeds. No safety concerns were reported in the study.
The main reason to be careful is that this was an observational cohort study, which means it only shows associations, not that the protein markers cause brain vessel disease. It does not prove that changing these markers would prevent the disease. Readers should realistically take from this that these blood markers might be useful for research or early detection, but more studies are needed to understand their role and whether they can be used in medical practice.
