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Both aging and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are strongly associated with changes in the metabolome; however, it is unknown whether there are common aging/COPD metabolomic signatures and if accelerated aging is associated with COPD. Plasma from 5,704 subjects from COPDGene and 2,449 subjects from SPIROMICS were profiled using the Metabolon global metabolomics platform (1,013 annotated metabolites). Post-bronchodilator spirometry measures of airflow obstruction (forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1)/forced vital capacity (FVC) 0.7) were used to define COPD. Elastic net regression was trained on never and former smokers with normal spirometry and no emphysema to create a metabolomic age score which was validated in SPIROMICS subjects. Our metabolic age score was strongly associated with chronic age in the validation cohort (correlation coefficient 0.8). COPD subjects with accelerated aging ( 7 years difference between metabolic and actual age) had more severe disease compared with those who had decelerated aging ( -7 years difference between metabolic and actual age). COPD and aging metabolites were shared more than expected (P 0.001) with overrepresented included amino acid and glutathione metabolism pathways. These findings suggesting a common mechanism between aging and COPD and that COPD is associated with accelerated metabolic aging.
Guo et al. (Mon,) studied this question.