| Title: | Brain age gap as biomarker linking cardiovascular diseases genetic susceptibility and causality |
| Journal: | iScience |
| Published: | 1 Mar 2026 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.114987 |
| URL: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.114987 |
Publication 17572
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Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain a primary cause of global mortality, underscoring the need for biomarkers that capture systemic aging risks. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from UK Biobank (UKB) participants were utilized to develop a three-dimensional vision transformer (3D-ViT) model for predicting brain age and computing BAG, an imaging-derived indicator of biological aging. Causal BAG-CVD relationships were assessed through bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR). The results substantiated significant brain-heart interactions, revealing that acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and chronic ischemic heart disease (CIH) were associated with decelerated brain aging (OR = 0.783; OR = 0.847), while an elevated BAG correlated with a reduced risk of AMI and CIH (OR = 0.954; OR = 0.969). These findings highlight BAG as an integrative indicator combining neuroimaging and genetic profiles. The observed bidirectional causality offers a biological framework for defining intervention strategies targeting comorbid brain and cardiovascular health.</p>
7 Authors
- Shangying Lyu
- Ruixia Zhang
- Kai Peng
- Guanglei Yu
- Zhixuan Zhang
- Kai Wang
- Xuehua Bi
1 Application
| Application ID | Title |
|---|---|
| 89757 | Research on chronic disease progression |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health