Biomarkers of early cardiovascular aging

Abstract

Genetic aspects regulate the intensity and rate of aging (no toxic effects considered), their negative role depends on the pathogenicity of the mutation. The light variant of the genetic “defect” has no clinical signs which feature a certain known genetic syndrome, but it has the biochemical, immunological, vascular and other abnormalities leading to pathological aging. In the most severe case, e.g. progeria, pathological aging is the main phenotypic symptom that manifests already in childhood. The subject of the pathological aging research covers the whole range of intermediate states. The review focuses on aging in individuals without validated signs of disease: coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes or fasting hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and others. The authors present the main searching directions of aging biomarkers (size and speed of telomere shortening, breaks in their terminal loops; expression of inflammatory proteins, synaptic interactions proteins and neurotrophic processes; mitochondrial biogenesis; endothelial dysfunction; DNA methylation activity).