Research Paper Advance Articles
Longitudinal associations of epigenetic aging with cognitive aging in Hispanic/Latino adults from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos
- 1 Institute of Molecular Medicine, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- 2 Human Genetics Center, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- 3 Institute of Gerontology and Department of Healthcare Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
- 4 Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- 5 CardioVascular Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA
- 6 Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- 7 Department of Neurosciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
- 8 Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- 9 Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
- 10 Department of Neurology, University of California, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA
Received: April 4, 2025 Accepted: July 22, 2025 Published: September 10, 2025
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206317How to Cite
Copyright: © 2025 Fornage et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Due to the paucity of longitudinal DNA methylation data (DNAm), especially among Hispanic/Latino adults, the association between changes in epigenetic clocks over time and cognitive aging phenotypes has not been investigated.
This longitudinal study included 2671 Hispanic/Latino adults (57 years; 66% women) with blood DNAm data and neurocognitive function assessed at two visits ~7 years apart. We evaluated the associations of 5 epigenetic clocks and their between-visit change with multiple measures of cognitive aging that included a global and domain-specific cognitive function score at each visit, between-visit change in global and domain-specific cognitive function score, and MCI diagnosis at visit 2 (V2).
There were significant associations between greater acceleration of all clocks and lower cognitive function at each visit and MCI at V2. The strongest associations were observed for GrimAge and DunedinPACE. There were significant associations of between-visit increase in PhenoAge and GrimAge acceleration with decline in cognitive function and greater risk of MCI diagnosis at V2.
Epigenetic aging is associated with lower global and domain-specific cognitive function, greater cognitive decline, and greater risk of MCI in Hispanic/Latino adults. Longitudinal assessment of change in age acceleration for second-generation clocks, GrimAge and PhenoAge may provide additional value in predicting cognitive aging beyond a single time point assessment.
Abbreviations
DNAm: DNA methylation; MCI: Mild cognitive impairment; AHA: American Heart Association; B-SEVLT: Brief-Spanish English Verbal Learning Test; WF: Word Fluency; DSST: Digit Symbol Substitution Test; OR: Odds ratio; SOL-INCA: Study of Latinos-Investigation of Neurocognitive Aging; PC: Principal component.