BMC Seminar - Circulating proteins in older adults

BMC Seminar Thursday 10 September at 12:00-13:00 in Árnagarður in room 301

Speaker: Hulda Karen Ingvarsdóttir, PhD student in Biomedical Sciences under supervision of Valborg Guðmundsdóttir, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland

Title: Long-term temporal stability of circulating proteins in older adults

Abstract: Circulating proteins are a rich source for biomarker discovery in precision medicine, yet little is known about what drives their long-term temporal stability. We evaluated the five-year temporal stability of 7288 serum proteins in 3093 participants (mean age 75 years) of the AGES-Reykjavik study. We observe wide variability in protein temporal stability: temporally stable proteins tend to be extracellular, secreted, and tissue-specific in origin, whereas temporally variable proteins are typically involved in intracellular housekeeping functions. Generally, protein levels become more stable with increasing age, and for some proteins, temporal stability differs by sex. We observed similar patterns and consistent temporal stability for a subset of plasma proteins in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Genetic factors and disease state broadly affect the temporal stability of the proteome. After adjusting protein concentrations for genetic effects, many proteins became more variable over time, and some that initially appeared stable were reclassified as variable, suggesting that genetic factors contribute to the apparent stability of a subset of proteins. In addition, disease status affected protein temporal stability: some proteins became more variable after disease onset, while others became more stable. Overall, our findings underscore protein-specific differences in long-term temporal stability, which are particularly important to consider in biomarker development and precision medicine.

News: Miklvægt að huga að tímaháðum stöðugleika próteina í blóði við sjúkdómarannsóknir

Publication in Nature Communication: Long-term temporal stability of circulating proteins in older adults.