On the Potential Treatment of Cellular Senescence in Aging

With advancing age ever more cells in any given tissue in the body are found to be in a senescent state. These cells have permanently exited the cell cycle in response to damage or stress, most likely in order to suppress cancer risk, but their accumulation causes progressive harm to tissue structure. One promising approach to removing this contribution to degenerative aging is the use of targeted cell destruction therapies, such as those under development in the cancer research community. Periodic clearance of senescent cells would prevent the dysfunction they cause, and while this research is poorly funded in comparison to its potential, a few groups are working on it. Cellular senescence is a process in which cells at risk of becoming cancerous adopt a state of permanent growth arrest. While this process prevents tumor formation (a cell that does not divide cannot become a tumor), senescent cells may also cause or contribute to aging and age-related conditions. The senescent phenotype is complex, and consists of many changes to the nature of the cell: permanent arrest of cell division; morphological changes; beta galactosidase expression and other epigenetic changes including the senescence-associated secretory phenotype in which senescent cells secrete a myriad of factors with potent biological activities. This senescence-associated secretory phenotype, or SASP, is the most potentially damaging effect of senescent cells. While senescent cells account for less than 10% of...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs