With more than two years of coronavirus pandemic in the rearview mirror, scientists continue to investigate the consequences of the passage of the COVID-19 disease in the body, both in the body and in the brain.
Their findings are raising concerns about the long-term impacts that coronavirus could have on biological processes such as early aging. This week, a study published in the journal Nature confirmed the phenomenon: there was an accelerated aging in the population and the pandemic was responsible for it.
“Ageing is a biological process related to disease and mortality. The biological process of aging is reflected in molecular characteristics, which include epigenetic modifications and telomere wear,” explain authors Xue Cao and Wenjuan Li, two of the several authors of the published scientific study.
“Previous work showed that the epigenetic landscape of the host cell is altered during HIV and SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, telomere wasting in leukocytes is another hallmark of aging and is associated with an increased risk of diseases related to aging and the duration of human life. In this study we estimated the epigenetic age of whole blood in patients with COVID-19 and healthy individuals using the previously established epigenetic clocks (Hannum, Horvath, PhenOage, SkinHorvath and GriMage clocks) and telomere length estimator. And we define the acceleration of epigenetic age for each case by comparing the epigenetic age of the individual with the chronological age to assess whether accelerated or dysfunctional epigenetic aging is associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and the severity of the COVID-19 syndrome,” experts said.
To study epigenetic aging in whole blood and its correlation with non-severe and severe COVID-19, scientists conducted a genome-wide DNA methylation study in whole blood collected from 232 healthy individuals, 194 patients with non-severe COVID-19 and 213 with severe COVID-19. And they found that blood had an older age of mDNA in patients with COVID-19 for Horvath, Hannum, SkinHorvath and GriMage watches compared to healthy individuals.
“To adjust the bias due to individual chronological age, we calculated the acceleration of epigenetic age for each sample. People with COVID-19 were estimated to have a significant acceleration of mDNA age. The same phenomena were observed in youth (age < 50) and elderly (age ≥ 50) populations. Together, we found accelerated epigenetic aging in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, experts said. In this study, scientists concluded that epigenetic age could be altered in the presence of viral infections and that shorter telomeres are associated with the risk of developing COVID-19 with worse outcomes. “In addition, we found a reversible influence of coronavirus on epigenetic aging in some patients with COVID-19 with longitudinal DNA methylation profile analysis. Overall, these findings suggest that COVID-19 may disrupt the epigenetic clock and telomere length since DNA aging paralleled telomere shortening in all observations.
Isolation also impacts
A recent work also published in Nature, points out that preventive isolation aged people ahead of time. According to Emily Sohn, author of the work, “as the pandemic continues, we will feel that we are aging faster than before.” Accelerated aging is caused by several factors: “Exposure to infectious diseases, chronic stress and loneliness affect the aging process, and as a result of this worsens health conditions, which ends up shortening life,” he adds.
The research was conducted through a survey in which one third of the people questioned reported that they had a decline in their mental and physical health. The most affected were women, who also gained weight in the pandemic. This result was supported by other experts who were not involved in the work. “People don't just feel aging faster, they're older. It's a scientifically proven fact,” says Sunitha Posina, an internist in Stony Brook, New York. “There is no doubt that the pandemic has added years to my skin and hair,” says dermatologist Mona Gohara, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine.
Although the great culprit is the pandemic, everyone points to stress as the final cause of this deterioration process, since this state increases the production of the hormone cortisol, which is involved in a series of processes. “Cortisol promotes inflammation and that not only creates skin problems, it accelerates aging in general,” says Gohara. On top of that, stress disrupts the sleep cycle and if people sleep less there is less chance that the organism will repair itself.
“As there is less melatonin, a substance that has antioxidant properties, the skin ages and collagen is not renewed. The result is more fine lines and wrinkles, tired eyes and loss of skin volume”, he said.
Dr. Posina says that when cortisol builds up for days, weeks or months it impacts almost every aspect of life, including food decisions. People also complain that bones' chirre ', which is also part of the effects of two years of pandemic. According to Posina, if you feel that your knees got old, it probably did because people reduced the amount of movement in the last two years. He also points out that it is problematic to have spent two years in front of screens in teleworking because the ultraviolet light they emit causes inflammation and accelerates the destruction of collagen and elastin.
Fortunately, there are solutions to stop this deterioration. Reparative measures include eating more vegetables to reduce inflammation, getting back to exercise, getting a good night's sleep, and even returning to work to reconnect with people. Posina sums it up in returning to activities that balance stress levels: focusing on eating better, meditating, doing yoga and walking.
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