Scientific Reports (Jun 2024)

Aging and putative frailty biomarkers are altered by spaceflight

  • Andrea Camera,
  • Marshall Tabetah,
  • Veronica Castañeda,
  • JangKeun Kim,
  • Aman Singh Galsinh,
  • Alissen Haro-Vinueza,
  • Ivonne Salinas,
  • Allen Seylani,
  • Shehbeel Arif,
  • Saswati Das,
  • Marcelo A. Mori,
  • Anthony Carano,
  • Lorraine Christine de Oliveira,
  • Masafumi Muratani,
  • Richard Barker,
  • Victoria Zaksas,
  • Chirag Goel,
  • Eleni Dimokidis,
  • Deanne M. Taylor,
  • Jisu Jeong,
  • Eliah Overbey,
  • Cem Meydan,
  • D. Marshall Porterfield,
  • Juan Esteban Díaz,
  • Andrés Caicedo,
  • Jonathan C. Schisler,
  • Evagelia C. Laiakis,
  • Christopher E. Mason,
  • Man S. Kim,
  • Fathi Karouia,
  • Nathaniel J. Szewczyk,
  • Afshin Beheshti

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-57948-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 1 – 21

Abstract

Read online

Abstract Human space exploration poses inherent risks to astronauts’ health, leading to molecular changes that can significantly impact their well-being. These alterations encompass genomic instability, mitochondrial dysfunction, increased inflammation, homeostatic dysregulation, and various epigenomic changes. Remarkably, these changes bear similarities to those observed during the aging process on Earth. However, our understanding of the connection between these molecular shifts and disease development in space remains limited. Frailty syndrome, a clinical syndrome associated with biological aging, has not been comprehensively investigated during spaceflight. To bridge this knowledge gap, we leveraged murine data obtained from NASA’s GeneLab, along with astronaut data gathered from the JAXA and Inspiration4 missions. Our objective was to assess the presence of biological markers and pathways related to frailty, aging, and sarcopenia within the spaceflight context. Through our analysis, we identified notable changes in gene expression patterns that may be indicative of the development of a frailty-like condition during space missions. These findings suggest that the parallels between spaceflight and the aging process may extend to encompass frailty as well. Consequently, further investigations exploring the utility of a frailty index in monitoring astronaut health appear to be warranted.