PFAS or ‘forever chemicals’ have wide-ranging toxic effects. Now, researchers have found that two non-legacy PFAS, namely perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), appear to speed up biological aging in middle-aged men, but not women. These results suggest that newer PFAS are not necessarily risk-free and should be considered for stricter regulation.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – ‘forever chemicals’ in common parlance – are a class of thousands of synthetic chemicals often used in non-stick coatings, water-resistant fabrics, fire-fighting foams, food packages, cleaning products, and plastics. They contain exceptionally strong molecular bonds, which makes them hard to break down. PFAS pollution is increasingly detectable in water, soil, and tissues of organisms, and some have been implicated in human cancers, obesity, infertility, and hormonal imbalances.
A handful of ‘legacy’ PFAS, like perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHS), have already been targeted for elimination worldwide under the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. But new PFAS have hit the market since, for example for use in emerging applications like AI data centers.
"Here we show that specific forever chemicals, namely perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), appear to accelerate biological aging, with middle-aged men being the most vulnerable group,” said Dr Xiangwei Li, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China and the corresponding author of a new study in Frontiers in Aging.
“These findings suggest that some newer PFAS alternatives are not necessarily low-risk replacements and warrant serious attention regarding their environmental impact."
Li and colleagues used public data on a nationally representative, randomly chosen group of 326 older women and men enrolled in 1999 and 2000 through the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Each had donated a blood sample, in which NHANES staff measured the concentration of 11 PFAS. The DNA ‘methylome’ – an epigenetic marker regulating gene expression – had also been measured in the blood cells. Each participant filled in a questionnaire reporting demographic and socioeconomic variables as well as lifestyle factors.
Li and colleagues fed these DNA methylome data into the algorithm for 12 older and recently developed ‘epigenetic clocks’ to estimate each participant’s biological age. Previous NHANES studies have shown that higher PFAS concentrations in the blood tend to be associated with faster biological aging, possibly through increased inflammation.
Full story: Middle-aged men are most vulnerable to faster aging due to ‘forever chemicals’