The study benchmarked plasma proteomic organ clocks against established ageing biomarkers for association with 16-year all-cause mortality in 861 members of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, among whom 444 died. Liver, immune and heart organ clocks carried hazard ratios of 1.38-1.43 per standard deviation, while epigenetic age, total brain and grey matter volume, respiratory function and cognition ranged from 1.44 to 1.62. A separate survival analysis of 9703 protein targets identified 368 associated with mortality, led by GDF15 at 1.56 per standard deviation.
Why it is interesting: A head-to-head comparison in one cohort sets the newer proteomic organ clocks against older epigenetic and functional measures for predicting death.