NHANES Biological Age Index reliable predictor of MS disability outcomes

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Biological Age Index is a reliable predictor of multiple MS disability outcomes and progressive phenotypes, according to a study presented at ACTRIMS Forum.

“(We’re) making sure that we understand fully the extent of how relapsing MS turns into secondary progressive MS and how aging can change our MS disability outcomes,” Annalise Miner, neuroimmunology clinical research coordinator at the University of California, San Diego, said in her presentation.

Miner and colleagues sought to investigate whether the NHANES BAI, which has been shown to accurately assess biological age and predict the risk for diseases related to aging, is associated with clinical disability in MS patients. The prospective, cross-sectional, case-control pilot study involved 42 participants with MS (73% female) along with 33 healthy controls (68% female) who were evaluated in the UCSD MS Center from May 2020 to August 2021. BAI factors included blood pressure, FEV1, serum creatinine, C-reactive protein, blood-urea nitrogen, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, cholesterol, CMV IgG and hemoglobin A1c.

Researchers calculated BAI using the Klemara and Doubal method and applied Spearman correlation analyses and multivariable linear regression to evaluate associations between BAI and MS clinical outcomes. Results showed that on average, MS participants had older biological age than age-similar controls. BAI correlated with chronological age in both MS and control participants, with mean BAI 2.7 years older than chronological age in MS participants and 2.5 years younger in controls. In MS patients younger than 40 years with accelerated biological age (BAI > 5 years older than birthdate), the median Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) was 3 compared with 1.5 in others of similar age. Conversely, in those over 40 years with a BAI 5 years younger, the median EDSS was 2.5 compared to 4 in the rest of the older-than-40 group.

Further, BAI also was strongly correlated with multiple MS disability outcomes and a progressive phenotype. However, no patients with a BAI 5 years younger than their chronological age were diagnosed with a progressive phenotype.

“It’s important to know things we can change, like our overall biological age and mental health, can have a positive impact on our MS patients,” Miner stated. “It’s also good to understand the biological mechanisms that underlie aging and progression in MS.”