Blood espression in Frailty and Robust patients

Frailty is a geriatric syndrome that represents a state of vulnerability with increased risk of negative health outcomes. In the last years, independent studies attempted to identify biomarkers of frailty at biological level, but no consensus has been reached to date. In this work, we performed a transcriptomic analysis of 25 robust and frail community-dwelling individuals based on Timed Up and Go, Gait Speed and Tilburg Frailty Indicator scales. The comparison between individuals classified as frail or robust by the three tools revealed the expression of 35 transcripts associated with frailty status. These include genes linked to inflammation- and hypoxia-related pathways, immune response or microRNAs. Among them, additional analyses showed that the expression of a 3-gene pattern, increased EGR1 and reduced DDX11L1 and miR454, was able to identify frail individuals with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.86 25 blood samples: NO replicates