Long-term temporal stability of circulating proteins in older adults

Circulating proteins reflect diverse biological processes and can offer critical insights into an individual‘s overall health and aging trajectory. The circulating proteome is shaped by a complex interplay of genetic, biological, and environmental factors across the lifespan. However, little is known about which factors influence its long-term temporal stability. Here we used SomaScan proteomics to evaluate the five-year temporal stability of 7,288 proteins measured in serum from 3,093 participants (mean age 76 years) of the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility (AGES)-Reykjavik study. We observed a wide variability in the temporal stability of individual proteins, with temporally stable proteins more often being extracellular and associated with diseases, while temporally variable proteins are typically involved in intracellular housekeeping functions. We demonstrate that temporal stability of circulating proteins does not reflect that of transcriptomic stability in tissues, and that genetic effects and disease stage are two major contributors to protein temporal stability in the circulation. Our findings underscore the protein-specific differences in long-term temporal stability, and the genetic and biological factors influencing them, which are particularly important to consider in the context of biomarker development and precision medicine.