There has been increasing interest in senescent cells and their treatment through senolytics. Senescence is the process in which cells arrest and develop distinct phenotypic features, a term coined by Hayflick and Moorhead in 1961. Historically, senescence has been viewed as a cancer protection mechanism, yet in later years has been linked to ageing and tissue repair.
Within the nature review article “The role of senescent cells in ageing” Jan M. van Deursen discusses acute senescence, attributed to processes such as wound healing and injury repair. Cells undergo targeted arrest in response to a specific stress, resulting in scheduled immuno-clearance and chronic senescence, which refers to processes such as aging and age-related disease. Responding to an increase in general damage with unscheduled clearance often results in the accumulation of senescent cells. It is believed this accumulation is the route of many age-related diseases.
In an interview with David Cox, in The Guardian, Johannes Grillari, cofounder of Rockfish Bio discussed the issues within transplantation from organ donors older than 65, stating that “the more senescent cells you have in a human transplant organ, the worse the outcome of the transplantation” accrediting this to the fact “senescent cells are proinflammatory, they attack recipients’ immune system”. It has been hypothesized that the occurrence of rejection will be reduced through senolytic treatment, a class of drugs that targets senescent cells for apoptosis.
In 2021 prof Tohru Minamino of Juntendo University, Japan, revealed an “ageing vaccine”. The protein GPNMB was targeted through senolytic therapy, aiming to eventually result in an RNA-like vaccine that will train the immune system to target these chronic senescent cells. In his nature article, Minamino and his colleagues discuss the observed improvement of pathological phenotypes associated with ageing within mouse models, providing hope for the future.
Overall, this is a fascinating area of research, with increasing evidence for an anti-aging future that tackles a plethora of age-related diseases. Despite the lack of cosmetic research, I wouldn’t get too disheartened. Who knows, maybe in 10 years, Kim Kardashian will be denying senolytic allegations. Ozempic started as a diabetes treatment, after all.