One fact that is true for everyone is that we are all going to die.
But if you could find out when that fatal day will be, would you take the test?
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing have developed a new blood test that can predict whether you’ll die within the next 10 years.
While the test is not ready for general realise yet, experts explained it works by analysing biomarkers in the blood linked to various factors that appear to affect your risk of death.
To develop the test, researchers looked at 44,168 participants aged 18 to 109 - 5,512 of who died during follow-ups.
An analysis of the participants’ blood revealed 14 biomarkers that were associated with an increased risk of death, according to our sister paper The Mirror.
These biomarkers were linked to various factors, including immunity, circulating fat, inflammation and glucose control.
This suggests that in the future, a sample of your blood could be analysed for the presence of these biomarkers, to indicate when you’ll die.
In the study, published in Nature Communications , the researchers, led by Joris Deelen, explained: “We subsequently show that the prediction accuracy of 5- and 10-year mortality based on a model containing the identified biomarkers and sex is better than that of a model containing conventional risk factors for mortality.”
The researchers highlight that further studies are needed before a clinical test is available, and this is backed up by experts not involved in the study.
Dr Amanda Heslegrave, a researcher at the UK Dementia Research Institute, said: “Whilst this study shows that this type of profiling can be useful, they do point out importantly that it would need further work to develop a score at the individual level that would be useful in real life situations.
“We’d need to see: validation to ensure repeatability in different labs, production of reference samples to test this on an ongoing basis, work to make the individual score possible, validation in other cohorts and validation of all components of the panel.
“So, it’s an exciting step, but it’s not ready yet.”
