Abstract Details

Title Cross-species Retinal Aging Analysis in Humans and Non-human Primates Using Deep Learning

Topic Neuro-ophthalmology/Neuro-otology

Presentation(s) S18 - Neuro-ophthalmology/Neuro-otology (5:06 PM-5:18 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 009

Objective To investigate similarities in retinal aging patterns between humans and non-human primates using deep learning-based age prediction and attention-based saliency analysis.

Background Non-human primates are the premier animal model for studying human aging and retinal biology due to their genetic and metabolic similarities, the presence of a true macula, and shared age-related pathologies. The retina provides a unique window into biological aging, with deep learning-based age predictions from retinal fundus images linked to systemic health outcomes in humans. Establishing cross-species validity of retinal aging biomarkers could provide a foundation for testing anti-aging interventions in primate animal models.

Design/Methods We analyzed 2,210 retinal images from 180 rhesus macaques (filtered from 8971 images using AutoMorph) and age-matched human images from the Collaborative University of California Teleophthalmology Initiative, based on a 3:1 age conversion ratio. A DINOv3 vision transformer was fine-tuned using 10-fold cross-validation separately on each dataset. Attention rollout generated saliency maps were anatomically aligned using optic disc and foveal coordinates derived from VascX and then averaged. We compared anatomical region-based saliency distribution between the two species, then performed cross-species model validation by training on one species and testing on the other.

Results Our model age predictions achieved a mean absolute error (MAE) of 2.2 years (R²=0.73) for macaques and MAE=3.62 years (R²=0.86) for humans. Averaged saliency maps showed qualitatively similar attention patterns between the two species, highlighting the peripapillary region and the retinal vasculature. Quantitative analysis showed greater attention to the optic disc and vasculature in macaques and slightly lower macular attention compared to humans. Cross-species model evaluation demonstrated a correlation of r=0.741 when training on primates and testing on humans, and r=0.597 for the reverse direction.

Conclusions Deep learning models reveal similar retinal aging patterns between humans and macaques, supporting the use of nonhuman primates as translational models for aging research and therapeutic development.

Authors/Disclosures
Tuyet Thao Nguyen PRESENTER	Ms. Nguyen has nothing to disclose.
Bum-Joo Cho, MD, PhD	Dr. Cho has nothing to disclose.
Sam Kushner Lenhoff, MD	Dr. Kushner Lenhoff has nothing to disclose.
Sophie Le (University of California, Davis)	No disclosure on file
Shahbaz Rezaei, PhD	Dr. Rezaei has nothing to disclose.
Xin Liu, PhD	Prof. Liu has nothing to disclose.
wei W. li, PhD	Prof. li has nothing to disclose.
Glenn Yiu, MD, PhD	Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for 4DMT. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $10,000-$49,999 for serving as a Consultant for Abbvie. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Adverum. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Alcon. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Bausch & Lomb. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Boehringer Ingelheim. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Clearside Biomedical. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Coave. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Genentech/Roche. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for jCyte. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Mobius. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Nanoscope. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Ocuphire. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Opthea. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Ray Therapeutics. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for RegenXBio. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Samsung Bioepis. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Stealth Therapeutics. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $0-$499 for serving as a Consultant for Supra Medical. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Surrozen. Dr. Yiu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for West Pharmaceuticals.
Yin A. Liu, MD, FAAN (UC Davis)	Dr. Liu has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Myrobalan. Dr. Liu has received personal compensation in the range of $0-$499 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Argenx.

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