Astrocyte Senescence Causes Death of Neurons in Cell Culture

With the caveat that the behavior of cells in culture is not necessarily all that relevant to their behavior amidst the full complexities of living tissue, this study is an interesting initial exploration of the ways in which the cellular senescence of supporting cells in the brain might contribute to the progression of neurodegeneration. Senescent cells secrete a potent mix of inflammatory and other signaling; while they serve a useful purpose when present for a short time, not all are successfully destroyed. Their numbers grow with age, and the presence of these errant cells and their signaling is very harmful over the long term. Thus the development of senolytic therapies to selectively destroy senescent cells is a very promising line of work in the treatment of aging as a medical condition. Neurodegeneration is a major age-related pathology. Cognitive decline is characteristic of patients with Alzheimer's and related dementias and cancer patients after chemotherapy or radiotherapy. A recently emerged driver of these and other age-related pathologies is cellular senescence, a cell fate that entails a permanent cell cycle arrest and pro-inflammatory senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Although there is a link between inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases, there are many open questions regarding how cellular senescence affects neurodegenerative pathologies. Among the essential cell types in the brain, astrocytes are the most abundant popul...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs