Senolytic Treatments as a Strategy to Improve Immune Function in Late Life

Senescent cells accumulate in tissues throughout the body with age. Cells become senescent constantly throughout life, largely by reaching the Hayflick limit on replication, but a small number due to potentially cancerous mutations, or other forms of damage and stress. Senescent cells are rapidly removed by the immune system in youth, keeping their numbers low, but the balance between creation and destruction is disrupted with aging. There is greater stress, but perhaps more importantly the immune system becomes less efficient, less able to clear senescent cells in a timely fashion. Since senescent cells actively secrete pro-inflammatory, pro-growth signals, they are a disruptive, harmful influence on tissue structure and function with present for the long term in even comparatively small numbers. It is fair to say that near every tissue and system in the body examined to date suffers from the late life presence of lingering senescent cells and their inflammatory secretions. These cells contribute meaningful to the onset and progression near every age-related condition. This includes the decline of the immune system into immunosenescence and inflammaging. It would be surprising indeed to find that removal of senescent cells failed to improve late life immune function in humans, considering what we know of the mechanisms involved, and the impressive array of evidence from animal studies. Even only considering the point that senescent cells encourage constant, unresolved...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs