Older adults with preserved cognition show slower biological aging and longer telomeres
An observational study in Chile linked perfect Mini-Mental State Examination scores in people over 80 to slower epigenetic clocks and longer estimated telomeres.
Researchers studied 80 community-dwelling older adults in Santiago, Chile, using data from the ALEXANDROS cohort. The cross-sectional analysis compared 40 healthy cognitive agers aged 80 or older who consistently scored 30 on the Mini-Mental State Examination with 40 cognitively normal peers who scored an average of 28.5. The team measured biological age with the Horvath, PhenoAge, and GrimAge epigenetic clocks, alongside DNA methylation-derived telomere length. Older adults with preserved cognitive performance showed significantly lower epigenetic age acceleration across all three clocks compared to controls. Their Horvath clock age acceleration was roughly 13.5 years lower, PhenoAge was 9.7 years lower, and GrimAge was 3.1 years lower. Healthy cognitive agers also possessed substantially longer DNA methylation-derived telomeres than controls.
Why it matters
The findings show that intact cognitive capacity in late life aligns with slower biological aging across multiple molecular clocks. This supports using DNA methylation markers to track and define healthy cognitive aging trajectories.
Caveats
The study was cross-sectional and enrolled only 80 participants, so it cannot prove cause and effect. Longitudinal studies are required to determine the temporal relationship between epigenetic aging rates and cognitive retention.
- Epigenetic alterations
- Telomere attrition
- DNA methylation
- Telomerase and telomere maintenance
- DNAmTL
- GrimAge
- Horvath clock
- MMSE
- PhenoAge
- Homo sapiens
The paper
Lower Epigenetic Age Acceleration in Older Adults with Preserved Global Cognitive Performance
Salech F, Marquez C, Correa-Burrows P et al.
Aging and Disease · 23 Sep 2026