More Evidence for Senescent Cells as a Significant Cause of Osteoarthritis

UNITY Biotechnology has obtained a large amount of venture funding in order to work on senolytic therapies, treatments capable of removing significant numbers of the senescent cells that accumulate with advancing age. Cellular senescence is one of the root cases of aging, as these cells cause inflammation and disruption of tissue structure and function. Enough of them can and will kill you, though the usual mechanism of producing ultimately fatal age-related diseases, assuming that none of the other causes of aging get there first. The UNITY Biotechnology principals initially aim to push senolytics through the regulatory process as a treatment for degenerative joint conditions such as osteoarthritis, though in reality removal of senescent cells is a general purpose rejuvenation therapy that everyone should undergo every few years, and as such should be expected to impact most age-related conditions. Regulators are not in favor of treatments for aging, however, so efforts become channeled into becoming narrowly approved, late stage interventions. The true and most beneficial use will happen unofficially, or via medical tourism. Since there is now a great deal of money and interest in this field, and since osteoathritis is an early target for UNITY Biotechnology, a fair number of interesting papers on this topic have emerged in recent months, providing ever more evidence for senescent cells in joint tissues to be a direct cause of degeneration. The latest paper quoted b...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs