Kids with multiple sclerosis age at an accelerated rate as the disease causes advanced wear and tear on their bodies, a new study found.

This accelerated aging extends into their teenage years, increasing their odds that MS-related disability and chronic disease will occur earlier in their lives, researchers reported June 9 in the journal Neurology.

“This is a whole new concept in MS,” said senior researcher Dr. Jennifer Graves, vice chair of neurosciences and division chief of neuroimmunology at the University of California-San Diego.

“Aging isn’t something we think of affecting teenagers,” she said in a news release. “But these kids are accumulating cellular damage that may not show up clinically until years later, when they suddenly transition from doing fine to disease progression in their 30s.”

MS is a lifelong autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the myelin sheaths that protect nerve cells in the brain, spinal cord, and eyes.

As damage mounts, patients develop symptoms like vision problems, muscle weakness, stiffness, difficulty with balance and coordination and dizziness, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The new study focuses on the concept of biological age — the age that reflects the wear-and-tear that has occurred in people’s bodies — making them biologically older than age reflected on their birth date.

For the study, researchers tracked DNA changes in blood samples from 125 children with MS and 145 children without the disease.

Despite appearing outwardly healthy, kids with MS had DNA patterns indicating that they were biologically older than their healthy peers, results showed.

Children most affected by MS-related biological aging appeared to be aging up to two years faster than kids without MS, even though their average chronological age was 15, researchers found.

“Compared to young people without MS, youth with MS had evidence of accelerated epigenetic age, a measurement of DNA chemical modifications associated with aging,” Graves explained.

“We know that aging is related to the development of a less treatable form of MS and that adults with MS face both normal aging and accelerated aging from the disease,” she added.

Researchers said future studies need to track patients over time to see how this early biological aging contributes to their long-term disability, as well as what exactly speeds up aging in these children with MS.

“It is a significant finding to see this accelerated aging in children,” Graves added. “If we can understand the interplay between the immune system, the brain and aging — and break that open — we might be able to put MS into full remission in the future.”