Daria Khaltourina1, Yuri Matveyev2, Aleksey Alekseev3, Franco Cortese4, Anca Ioviţă5. 1. Department of Risk Factor Prevention, Federal Research Institute for Health Organization and Informatics of Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Dobrolyubova St. 11, Moscow, 127254, Russia; International Longevity Alliance, 19 avenue Jean Jaurès, Sceaux, 92330, France. Electronic address: khatourina@mednet.ru. 2. Research Lab, Moscow Regional Research and Clinical Institute, Schepkina St. 61/2 k.1, Moscow, 129110, Russia. 3. Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, GSP-1, Moscow, 119991, Russia. 4. Biogerontology Research Foundation, Apt 2354 Chynoweth House, Trevissome Park, Truro, London, TR4 8UN, UK. 5. International Longevity Alliance, 19 avenue Jean Jaurès, Sceaux, 92330, France.
Abstract
The disease criteria used by the World Health Organization (WHO) were applied to human biological aging in order to assess whether aging can be classified as a disease. These criteria were developed for the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and included disease diagnostics, mechanisms, course and outcomes, known interventions, and linkage to genetic and environmental factors. RESULTS: Biological aging can be diagnosed with frailty indices, functional, blood-based biomarkers. A number of major causal mechanisms of human aging involved in various organs have been described, such as inflammation, replicative cellular senescence, immune senescence, proteostasis failures, mitochondrial dysfunctions, fibrotic propensity, hormonal aging, body composition changes, etc. We identified a number of clinically proven interventions, as well as genetic and environmental factors of aging. Therefore, aging fits the ICD-11 criteria and can be considered a disease. Our proposal was submitted to the ICD-11 Joint Task force, and this led to the inclusion of the extension code for "Ageing-related" (XT9T) into the "Causality" section of the ICD-11. This might lead to greater focus on biological aging in global health policy and might provide for more opportunities for the new therapy developers.
The disease criteria used by the World Health Organization (WHO) were applied to human biological aging in order to assess whether aging can be classified as a disease. These criteria were developed for the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and included disease diagnostics, mechanisms, course and outcomes, known interventions, and linkage to genetic and environmental factors. RESULTS: Biological aging can be diagnosed with frailty indices, functional, blood-based biomarkers. A number of major causal mechanisms of human aging involved in various organs have been described, such as inflammation, replicative cellular senescence, immune senescence, proteostasis failures, mitochondrial dysfunctions, fibrotic propensity, hormonal aging, body composition changes, etc. We identified a number of clinically proven interventions, as well as genetic and environmental factors of aging. Therefore, aging fits the ICD-11 criteria and can be considered a disease. Our proposal was submitted to the ICD-11 Joint Task force, and this led to the inclusion of the extension code for "Ageing-related" (XT9T) into the "Causality" section of the ICD-11. This might lead to greater focus on biological aging in global health policy and might provide for more opportunities for the new therapy developers.