Senolytic Drugs to Kill Off Senescent Cells and Thereby Slow the Progression of Degenerative Aging

As we age, an increasing number of cells fall into a senescent state in which they cease dividing and begin to secrete all sorts of compounds that both harm surrounding tissue structure and raise the odds of nearby cells also becoming senescent. This seems to be a tool of embryonic development that now also acts to suppress cancer risk by removing the ability to divide from those cells most likely to become cancerous. Unfortunately it harms tissue function in doing so, and worse, only actually suppresses cancer risk when there are comparatively few senescent cells. Given a lot of these cells their activities cause chronic inflammation and other issues that in fact raise the risk of cancer, and help cancer cells to prosper where they do arise. By the time we reach old age, a high proportion of cells in many tissues are senescent. The Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, SENS, is a package of research programs based on repair of the known forms of cellular and molecular damage that cause aging. It is the path to true rejuvenation therapies, rather than merely slowing the progression of aging, and thus is worthy of far more attention and funding than it has at present. Some parts of the SENS research programs have gained more attention in recently years, however. It seems to me that I was on the ball a few years back when I suggested senescent cell clearance would be the first SENS technology to arrive. Since the 2011 demonstration of senescent cell clearance to slo...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs