Aging like fine wine

What makes the difference?

Dr. Anna Prizment, PhD. is an associate professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota's Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, and our 10,000 Families Study co-investigator. As a cancer researcher, Anna seeks to identify the factors that can tell us what will happen with our health later in life and the best ways to intervene. Anna's goal is to help people age healthily.

1. Anna, looking at your biography we learned that you have a PhD in epidemiology, and that you are focusing your research on aging. For us to begin to understand what you do:
   • Could you please remind us what epidemiology is?
     It is funny that you ask. I get this question all the time. Before COVID-19, nobody knew what epidemiology meant. Nowadays people are more familiar with it. In general, it’s about finding causes and distribution of any diseases across the population. Epidemiology is not only about infectious diseases. In fact, more research is being done about chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, which is my main area of expertise.

• What does epidemiology have to do with aging? What was your path to arrive at studying aging?
  It has been noted that different people age at different paces. We are not talking about wrinkles here, even though wrinkles might be important! I am talking about frailty and chronic diseases, physiological and cognitive function. People can be of the same age but have very different physiological and cognitive states. There has been a lot of discussion that people with cancer age faster than others. The primary reason could be the treatment that they receive, but sometimes people at earlier stages of cancer who have undergone little treatment complain that they feel older than healthier people. I wanted to study why and how cancer patients age faster than more healthy individuals because this area is so important. So in my case, I arrived at studying aging from my research in cancer: now I also want to study dementia and aging, especially biomarkers that will allow us to predict development of dementia and also figure-out how to intervene. 
   
• Before we continue this interesting conversation and to understand better, can you explain what biomarkers are?
  Biomarkers are characteristics that we can measure in blood, urine, or tissue, and they indicate that something is going on in the body. For instance, some examples of biomarkers are high levels of bad cholesterol measured in blood, which can predict that the person will have cardiovascular disease, or measures in urine that are indicative of a urinary tract infection. Some biomarkers are used to develop drugs. There isn’t one good biomarker for aging, at least not at this point.

1. Continuing about your aging research: 
   • Tell us more about your aging research. What do you study in the broad area of aging, and why is it important?
     The goal is to help people age healthily: not just to live longer, but to have a good quality of life. Even if they have a chronic disease, there should be interventions that will prevent the disease from having a negative effect on their lives. For example, lifestyle interventions like exercise and eating better could slow-down aging. In animals there are drugs that have been shown to slow-down aging, but such drugs do not exist for use in people yet. For now my research is to find biomarkers that predict aging, and then if we can identify those biomarkers, we can predict aging and measure how these biomarkers are affected by drugs in clinical trials.
      
   • What are you most excited about in your research?
     Everybody needs this as more and more people live longer and more survive after being diagnosed with cancer. There will be more people in  both groups in the coming years, and physicians and researchers together need to investigate how to improve their quality of life. I feel there is a lot I can contribute, and my research can be useful to people.
      
   • What are some of the toughest nuts to crack when it comes to aging research?
     Aging research is a very broad topic, and there are many things people study, such as how to help caregivers of those with dementia. What I am doing with biomarkers is on the molecular level, and it will take some time before it will be applied to real-life, but it will be eventually. We need biomarkers that will measure and predict aging so we can intervene at earlier stages. I want to use my knowledge that I have gained working with cancer all these years and apply it to aging research.
      
   • Can you tell us about a particular study?
     Currently I am working with data from a study called Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC) in the School of Public Health Division of Epidemiology & Community Health. ARIC started recruiting in the 1980s, with 16,000 middle-aged people from 4 centers nationally, and we're still following about 6,000. We have very interesting data on cancer and cardiovascular disease, dementia, and all aging diseases from questionnaires and biological samples. We’re working with this data to create biomarkers to predict aging.   
2. Tell us about your work with the 10,000 (10KFS) Families Study:
   • Why did you get involved with the Study?
     I believe that the Study is unique and presents an opportunity to work with Minnesotans. And since this is a family study, several generations will be involved, and that offers a great opportunity to study all aging diseases, especially diseases that particularly interest me: cancer and dementia. 
      
   • Where do you see 10KFS’ greatest potential when it comes to aging? It has huge potential because in some cases it has 3 generations of a family, which may help us predict diseases in younger people. We are also planning to study different populations in Minnesota so we can compare their aging. For example, some people think that Hispanics are aging faster, but is it true? And if so, what are the reasons for faster aging? We are planning to compare trajectories of functional or biological aging in the same generations across different populations. This field of aging research is in its infancy; there aren’t reliable conclusions from other studies yet, and 10KFS will help address that gap. My fellow 10KFS researcher Bharat Thyagarajan and I will pursue this research through 10KFS, and we have a great group of researchers in the group to help us.
3. Going back in time, you are originally from Russia, and you came to Minnesota as an adult. 
   • What brought you here?
     When my husband, who is also from Russia, was planning to move to the US for his continued career training, he visited different universities, talked with friends, and then fell in love with Minnesota when he visited. He thought that Minnesota was the best place one could live. Of course he visited over the Summer! I followed him and we came to Minnesota in the late 90s, and we are still in love with Minnesota.
      
   • How did you choose your path after moving to Minnesota?
     When I came to Minnesota with a degree in chemistry and experience working in a lab, I realized I wanted to change my career to something that has direct application to people--which for me was more meaningful. I thought of epidemiology since it really combines the study of diseases and computer/mathematics skills I had. I started with a Master’s degree in epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and liked it so much that I decided to go on to a PhD. Now I’m studying what really matters to me. I am very happy I chose this field for my second career. 
4. Do you have any recommendations for people to stay in good health as they age and live longer?
   Everyone hears that you need to exercise and you need to eat healthy. I am guilty of not doing all the things I should, but if you think about aging and if you want to live a longer life without  having dementia and other diseases, it’s important to follow lifestyle recommendations starting in early adulthood. The earlier you start, the better.