Senolytics as an Arm of Regenerative Medicine for the Elderly

Senolytic therapies are those that selectively destroy the senescent cells that accumulate in tissues with age. These cells secrete a potent mix of signals that produce chronic inflammation and degrade tissue function, particularly the ability of tissues to maintain and repair themselves. While many well known interventions that improve long-term health - exercise, calorie restriction, and so forth - are likely to modestly lower the burden of senescent cells over time, by increasing the pace of destruction or lowering the pace of creation, the senolytic label is reserved for therapies that can be applied to very quickly destroy a significant number of such cells. Animal studies suggest that removing as little as a third of the senescent cells in an old individual, via treatments such as the dasatinib and quercetin combination, is enough to produce quite profound reversal of pathology in numerous age-related diseases. A higher degree of clearance should be better. Researchers are probing ways to activate the body's regenerative potential to slow the clock on chronic conditions that set in as we age. "We're quite interested in what it is it about aging that compromises the ability of our bodies to rejuvenate. We want to know what it is about the process of aging that leads to the molecular and cellular damage associated with different diseases and geriatric syndromes." Cell senescence, a state of growth arrest, plays a key role in aging. Damage to cells, and pa...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs