NMR-based metabolic profiling of human plasma for the identification of biomarkers associated with ageing

With the progressive increase in life expectancy, age-related pathologies are becoming a major public health challenge. This scenario highlights the need for reliable diagnostic and prognostic tools capable of supporting the early identification and monitoring of ageing-associated functional and cognitive decline. In this field, NMR spectroscopy allows both the metabolic profiling and fingerprinting of biological samples, thus providing a comprehensive overview of their molecular composition. Here we describe the application of this technique to the profiling of human plasma samples within the multicentric randomized controlled trial IN-TeMPO (ItaliaN Study With Tailored Multidomain Interventions to Prevent Functional and Cognitive Decline in Community-dwelling Older Adults, ID NCT06248723), which aims to evaluate the efficacy of guided multidomain interventions in preventing age-related cognitive and functional decline. To identify potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers related to ageing and age-associated decline, plasma samples collected at t0 and t1 in the IN-TeMPO trial, corresponding respectively to baseline and after the 12-month intervention, are subjected to multivariate statistical analyses combining NMR-derived metabolic profiles with clinical, functional, and demographic patient metadata.