The researchers analysed 54 biomarkers in the blood of the participants that reflect biological processes such as inflammation, vascular health, metabolism and neurodegeneration. They then examined the correlation between these markers and three measures of multimorbidity: total number of diseases, five common disease patterns, and how quickly the diseases accumulated over a period of 15 years.
“We found that certain blood biomarkers, especially those connected with metabolism, were strongly linked to both specific disease combinations and how quickly new diseases developed,” says the study’s first author Alice Margherita Ornago, doctoral student at the Aging Research Centre at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society.
Seven biomarkers proved particularly significant. Five of them - GDF-15, HbA1c, Cystatin C, leptin and insulin - were consistently associated with all the multimorbidity measures considered in the study. Two others - gamma-glutamyl transferase and albumin - were specifically linked to the speed of disease progression over time. The results were corroborated in an independent cohort of 522 participants in the USA.
“Our study suggests that disturbances in metabolism, stress responses, and energy regulation are among the main drivers of multimorbidity in older people,” says the principal investigator Davide Liborio Vetrano, associate professor in the same department. “This opens up the possibility of using simple blood tests to identify high-risk individuals, enabling earlier intervention in the future.”
The researchers are now planning to track how these blood biomarkers change over time and study whether lifestyle changes or medication can affect the pathological process.
Ornago AM, Gregorio C, Triolo F, Moore AZ, Marengoni A, Beridze G, Grande G, Bellelli G, Dale M, Fredolini C, Ferrucci L, Fratiglioni L, Calderón-Larrañaga A, Vetrano DL.
Shared and specific blood biomarkers for multimorbidity.
Nat Med. 2026 Jan 2. doi: 10.1038/s41591-025-04038-2