For many people, living longer brings health challenges: Osteoporosis, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease. And of course, zombie cells.
The technical term is senescent cells. They’re damaged and unable to repair themselves. They’re also more likely to linger in the body as we age — like zombies — secreting inflammatory molecules that can hasten our decline.
“They have this very robust secretory phenotype,” said Nathan K. LeBrasseur, PhD, director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at Mayo Clinic. “They drive things such as impaired tissue regeneration, fibrosis, degeneration, inflammation — a lot of the conditions that are clearly central to age-related diseases. And that’s what’s exciting about these cells as therapeutic targets.”
That is, targets for senolytics, the still-experimental…