Researchers identify target for senolytic drugs

In a study recently published in Nature, University of Minnesota Medical School researchers found that senescent immune cells are the most dangerous type of senescent cell.

Cells become senescent when they are damaged or stressed in the body, and they accumulate in our organs as we age. Senescent cells drive inflammation and aging as well as most age-related diseases.

The research team—led by Laura Niedernhofer, MD, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics—discovered that senescent immune cells drive tissue damage all over the body and shorten lifespan. Therefore, senescent immune cells are detrimental and should be targeted with senolytics.

U of M researchers, including Niedernhofer and collaborators at the Mayo Clinic, previously identified a new class of drugs in 2015 and coined them as senolytics, which selectively remove senescent cells from your body. However, senolytic drugs have to be targeted to a specific cell type, so one senolytic drug is not able to kill a senescent brain cell and a senescent liver cell.

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