Removing zombie (senescent) cells using senolytics slows the aging process

Abstract

Recent studies have shown a new solution that could delay the aging process, just by removing zombie (senescent cells), all cells in our bodies are at a risk of becoming senescent due to exposure of harmful stimuli that activate a specific signaling pathway. Senescent cells have undergone permanent growth arrest, adopt an altered secretory phenotype, and accumulate in organs with ageing and injury. Recent studies have shown that depletion of senescent cells extends healthy lifespan and delays ageassociated disease—proving that senescence and the senescence-associated secretory phenotype are causative agents of organ dysfunction. Great interest is therefore focused on the manipulation of senescence as a novel therapeutic target in many age related disease by using a cocktail of drugs known as senolytics, these reduce the zombie cell count to delay aging by the intermittent administration of the senolytic drug combination, Dasatinib and Quercetin, which transiently disables the prosurvival pathways that defend senescent cells against their own apoptotic environment, selectively eliminates senescent cells in mice and human cell cultures. In the first clinical trial of senolytics, they decreased physical dysfunction in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a progressive, fatal, cellular senescenceassociated disease. In another clinical trials, usage of the senolytic mixture improved the health of patients with diabetic kidney disease, osteoarthritis and age related immunosuppression.