The Enormous Clinical Potential of Senotherapeutics for the Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease

Today's open access review paper is a high level look at what the newfound realization of the importance of senescent cells to aging and age-related disease means for the treatment of chronic kidney disease. At present there are few good options for treatment, and those therapies that are widely used can only slow the progression towards kidney failure. The kidneys filter waste and regulate many of the chemical and other characteristics of blood. Correct function of the kidneys is vital to the correct function of many other organs in the body, including heart, vascular system, and brain. As the kidneys decline, so too does heart function and cognitive function, among other vital processes. The evidence from animal studies of cellular senescence in recent years demonstrates that the age-related accumulation of senescent cells is important in the onset and progression of chronic kidney disease. The targeted destruction of senescent cells via senolytic drugs has been shown to reverse aspects of kidney aging and damage, an otherwise challenging goal. Lingering senescent cells actively maintain a degraded state of tissue function via inflammatory and other secretions, the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Remove the senescent cells and the SASP, and tissues quite quickly revert to a more youthful behavior. An early senolytic treatment for chronic kidney disease is presently being trialed in humans, and more such trials will follow from the numerous biotech c...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs