6, March 2010
Pune, India
Associate professor of medicine at B J Medical College, Anita Basavaraj on Thursday stated that early identification of biomarkers can ensure timely treatment of a disease. “For every disease, their are certain biomarkers that can identify ageing. A biomarker indicates a change in expression or state of a protein that correlates with the risk or progression of a disease,” she said.
She was speaking on ‘Biomarkers of human ageing,’ on the occasion of National Science Day organised by the rehabilitation department of the B J Medical College and Sassoon general hospital on Thursday.
She pointed out that in 1999, nine percent of the population was in their 60s and in 2050, it will increase to 30%. “So onethird of the population is going to be elderly citizens and thus, it’s important to gauge their health condition. Here comes the importance of biomarker (refer to a protein measured in blood whose concentration reflects the severity or presence of some disease state) that acts as a meter of the ageing process. Biomarkers is critical in gauging the health condition,” she said.
According to her, there is no standardised measure for ageing. A person’s biological age is more indicative of his/her health than the chronological age.
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