Predicting Biological Age Using Blood and Gut Microbiome Data | Aging-US

Aging-US #published this #trending research paper on March 12, 2026, in Volume 18, titled “Blood biochemical and gut microbiotic neural network models forecasting human biological age" by #researchers from the Russian Clinical Research Center for Gerontology, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow 129226, Russia; Institute of Biology of Aging and Healthy Longevity Medicine with Preventive Medicine Clinic, Petrovsky Russian Research Centre of Surgery, Moscow, Russia. #aging #research #gerontology #blood #gut #neurology #biology #openaccess #openscience #peerreviewed #journal #publishing #meded DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206360 Corresponding author - Alexey Moskalev - amoskalev@med.ru Abstract Biological age reflects the current state of the body, considering the aspects of lifestyle, environment, and hereditary component. Currently there is no universal formula for determining it, but there are markers that can be used to calculate it. This study aims to develop and compare two models for calculating biological age based on laboratory blood tests and composition of gut microbiota. The biochemical model of biological age uses 7 indicators and is gender-specific (general – cystatin-C, IGF-1, DHEAS, only for females – homocysteine, urea, glucose, zonulin, only for males – HbA1c, NT-proBNP, free testosterone, hs-CRP). The microbial model requires the input of percentages of 45 bacterial species as indicators of the gut microbiota. Both methods demonstrate high predictive accuracy (MAE ~ 6 years, R2 greater than 0.8) and the degree of agreement of assessments both with each other and with PhenoAge (correlation greater than 0.89). For enhanced interpretability of the models, we applied the SHAP explanation algorithm, which allowed us to evaluate the contribution of each predictor to the final assessment of the biological age. Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article - https://aging.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Faging.206360 Subscribe for free publication alerts from Aging - https://www.aging-us.com/subscribe-to-toc-alerts Keywords - aging, biological age, blood biochemistry, gut microbiome, neural network To learn more about the journal, please visit https://www.Aging-US.com​​ and connect with us on social media at: Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/aging-us.bsky.social ResearchGate - https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Aging-1945-4589 X - https://twitter.com/AgingJrnl Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AgingUS/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/agingjrnl/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aging/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/AgingUS/ Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/AgingUS/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Aging-US Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1X4HQQgegjReaf6Mozn6Mc MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM