Recent studies have highlighted the beneficial physiological role of senescent cells, suggesting that targeting them with anti-aging therapies could be counterproductive and risky. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
“Aging” includes a variety of processes and cells that have both beneficial and harmful functions, so it is not accurate to attribute the cause of aging solely to them.
The quest for anti-aging therapies often targets senescent cells, even though in many recent cases senescent cells serve a physiological role that benefits health, but one leading researcher has issued a warning.
In a recently published paper, ScienceProfessor João Pedro de Magalhães, from the University of Birmingham, points out that senescent cells, which have been variously cited as the cause of ageing, actually have a variety of beneficial effects on health and targeting them therapeutically could be harmful.
The dual role of aging in health
Professor de Magalhães highlights the important role that cellular senescence plays in the development of different tissues and organs.
- Inflammation and wound healing,
- Tumor suppression,
- Insulin Secretion in pancreatic beta cells,
- It plays a structural role in the vascular system and placenta.
Senescence has also been observed in regenerating tissues in some animals, including mice, where hepatic stellate cells, which are essential for normal liver function, undergo senescence after injury.
João Pedro de Magalhães, Professor of Molecular Biology and Gerontology University of Birmingham The authors of the paper state: “The role of cellular senescence in ageing and age-related diseases is a major area of research, with efforts to develop therapeutics that target senescent cells. However, recent findings reveal a surprising and growing number of normal physiological roles for senescent cells. Surprisingly, these results indicate that senescent cells play an important physiological role, raising major questions about the rationale, efficacy, and safety of therapeutically targeting senescent cells. Although there are clearly some examples where cellular senescence is implicated in diseases of ageing, therapeutically targeting senescent cells carries risks and may not be the way to tackle aging.”
Reference: “Cellular Senescence in Normal Physiology” by João Pedro de Magalhães, June 20, 2024, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.adj7050
