Telomere length and epigenetic age acceleration in adolescents with anxiety disorders

Evidence on the relationship between genetics and mental health are flourishing. However, few studies are evaluating early biomarkers that might link genes, environment, and psychopathology. We aimed to study telomere length (TL) and epigenetic age acceleration (AA) in a cohort of adolescents with and without anxiety disorders (N=234). We evaluated a representative subsample of participants at baseline and after 5 years (n=76) and categorized them according to their anxiety disorder diagnosis at both time points: (1) control group (no anxiety disorder, n=18), (2) variable group (anxiety disorder in one evaluation, n=38), and (3) persistent group (anxiety disorder at both time points, n=20). We assessed relative mean TL by real-time quantitative PCR and DNA methylation by Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip. We calculated AA using the Horvath age estimation algorithm and analyzed differences among groups using generalized linear mixed models. The persistent group of anxiety disorder did not change TL over time (p=0.495). The variable group had higher baseline TL (p=0.003) but no accelerated TL erosion in comparison to the non-anxiety control group (p=0.053). Furthermore, there were no differences in AA among groups over time. Our findings suggest that adolescents with chronic anxiety did not change telomere length over time, which could be related to a delay in neuronal development in this period of life.