GlycanAge

A company offering an aging biomarker test to determine your biological age be examining glycans.

Glycans are complex sugar molecules (carbohydrates), and one of the four main building blocks of life. They are involved in almost every process in our body. Four building blocks of every cell in all living organisms are:

– Nucleic acids (DNA & RNA)

– Proteins

– Lipids

– Glycans

More than half of all our proteins are glycosylated, with their glycan parts often playing an essential functional role. Glycans are crucial for the functioning of our immune system. Glycans attached to the antibodies modulate their activity and determine if they will have a pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory function. Thus, it is not surprising that glycan profiles can serve as a measure of an individual’s health. The GlycanAge test looks at the glycosylation pattern of the immunoglobulin G (IgG) molecule. IgG is the most prevalent antibody type in our blood and especially important in controlling inflammation and pathogens.

Among other vital processes, glycans regulate our immune system. Immunoglobulin G (IgG), the most prevalent antibody type in our blood, is always glycosylated – meaning it has glycans attached to it. The type of the glycan group attached to the IgG determines if IgG will enhance or reduce inflammation. Since inflammation can exhaust our resources to keep the body in good health, low level of inflammation was shown to be a predictor of successful ageing. Therefore, IgG glycosylation is also a good measure of biological age.