Towards More Selective Senolytic Drugs to Clear Senescent Cells from Aged Tissues

Cells enter a senescent state constantly throughout life, largely as a result of reaching the Hayflick limit on cellular replication, but also due to damage and stress. Senescent cells cease to replicate and begin to secrete pro-inflammatory, pro-growth signals. This attracts the immune system to sites of potential concern, and in the case of physical injuries to tissue the signaling of senescent cells helps to coordinate repair. Senescent cells are normally cleared from tissues fairly quickly, being destroyed either by immune cells, or via programmed cell death mechanisms. With age, however, the pace of clearance slows and the pace of creation picks up as the body becomes more inflamed, stressed, and damaged. Studies in mice make it clear that a burden of lingering senescent cells grows with age throughout the body, and that their secreted signals actively disrupt tissue structure and function when maintained for the long term, changing the behavior of other cells for the worse. Targeted destruction of senescent cells by first generation senolytic drugs, or the genetic engineering techniques that preceded those drugs, produces rapid rejuvenation. Life span is extended, measures of many different age-related diseases are reversed. This happens quite quickly. As one might expect, a great deal of attention is now focused on refining strategies for clearing senescent cells, both in academia and in biotech companies. While the research and development communities ar...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs