It’s said nobody knows when our time on earth is up – but researchers believe they’ve found a way of knowing if you are likely to survive the next five years. Scientists from the University of Surrey say they have found a blood test which can show if you are at an increased risk of dying.
They say some key proteins in the blood can predict the risk of mortality over the next five years while others can reveal your chances of survival over the next 10 years. They hope the information will now help doctors treat earlier.
The researchers identified raised levels of five proteins in the blood can predict the risk of death. They believe the proteins (PLAUR, SERPINA3, CRIM1, DDR1 and LTBP2), that contribute to the development of diseases such as cancer and inflammation, may also flag the risk of dying.
Their study, published in PLoS One, also found 392 proteins associated with an increased risk of death within five years and a further 377 proteins associated with dying within 10 years. This was the case even when adjusting for health and lifestyle factors, such as smoking or pre-existing disease diagnoses.
The researchers now hope the findings could help clinicians identify those most at risk from death. And they hope it could lead to earlier medical interventions, reports Surrey Live.
Proteins perform a wide range of vital functions in the body and are essential for growth, development, and the structure of every cell. Scientists using data from the UK Biobank to analyse blood protein profiles from more than 38,000 middle-aged and older adults, some of whom had suffered non-accidental death, within a five or 10-year period after blood samples were taken.
Professor Nophar Geifman, Professor of Health and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Surrey, said: “Not only can different proteins reflect our overall health, and help identify ongoing disease, what we have shown is that they can reflect the risk of dying within a certain period. Altered levels of such proteins are an indicator that all is not well in the body and particular life limiting conditions could arise.
“Early identification of individuals at most risk could enable targeted interventions and treatment plans, helping to improve life span. Ultimately, this will also help our health services reduce costs, as early interventions have beneficial health economic effects by lowering the need for long-term and costly care.”
Scientists discovered that proteins responsible for cells communicating with each other, increasing the number of cells, and processes of inflammation, were most predictive of mortality within five years. For example, high levels of the protein (SERPINA1), responsible for protecting the lungs against certain enzymes, which cause inflammation, was identified as being a strong predictor of five-year mortality.
The team also found that five proteins were key indicators of mortality regardless of the timeframe. This suggests these proteins play key roles in biological processes that result in conditions with poor outcomes.
This included elevated levels of SERPINA3 are associated with lower survival rates in several types of skin cancer and carcinomas. Natalia Koziar, a PhD candidate at the University of Surrey and lead author, said: “Certain blood proteins reflect more gradual, chronic processes that affect long term survival whilst others are reflective of more immediate, acute health risks, like troponin for heart disease. The new information could be useful to clinicians in creating a scorecard of protein levels that help to identify individuals most at risk of developing conditions with poor outcomes.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
