(Press-News.org) ROCHESTER, Minn. — Drugs that selectively kill senescent cells may benefit otherwise healthy older women but are not a "one-size-fits-all" remedy, Mayo Clinic researchers have found. Specifically, these drugs may only benefit people with a high number of senescent cells, according to findings publishing July 2 in Nature Medicine.
Senescent cells are malfunctioning cells in the body that lapse into a state of dormancy. These cells, also known as "zombie cells," can't divide but can drive chronic inflammation and tissue dysfunction linked to aging and chronic diseases. Senolytic drugs clear tissues of senescent cells.
In the 20-week, phase 2 randomized controlled trial, 60 healthy women past menopause intermittently received a senolytic combination composed of FDA-approved dasatinib and quercetin, a natural product found in some foods. It is the first randomized controlled trial of intermittent senolytic treatment in healthy aging women, and the investigators used bone metabolism as a marker for efficacy.
Researchers found that this combination, known as D+Q, had beneficial effects on bone formation but did not reduce bone resorption or the breakdown and removal of bone tissue. Furthermore, D+Q mainly benefited people with evidence of a high number of senescent cells. This group had more robust increases in bone formation, decreases in bone resorption, and an increase in bone mineral density at the wrist.
"Our findings argue against what many people are already doing -- using commercial products like quercetin or related compounds like fisetin that may show some senolytic properties," says senior author Sundeep Khosla, M.D., an endocrinologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "They're using them as anti-aging agents without knowing if they have high enough senescent cell numbers to benefit, or what dose or dosing regimen is needed to be effective yet safe."
Dr. Khosla says more research is needed to better identify people who may benefit from senolytic treatments and to develop more specific and potent senolytic drugs that may show efficacy in more people. People who have experienced "accelerated aging" -- such as cancer survivors after chemotherapy, or those with progeroid syndromes – may have increased numbers of senescent cells.
Besides their application to aging, senolytic drugs may be useful against certain diseases, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, dementia, diabetes, heart disease and others, Dr. Khosla says. However, these drugs will likely need to be customized according to their potency and the amounts of senescent cells in the diseased tissues.
The study was supported by National Institutes of Health grant nos. R21 AG065868, P01 AG062413, R01 AG 076515, R01 DK128552, R01 AG055529, R37 AG13925 and R33 AG61456.
Co-authors are Joshua Farr, Ph.D., Elizabeth Atkinson, Sara Achenbach, Tammie Volkman, Amanda Tweed, Stephanie Vos, Ming Ruan, Jad Sfeir, M.D., Matthew Drake, M.D., Ph.D., Dominik Saul, M.D., Madison Doolittle, Ph.D., Irina Bancos, M.D., Kai Yu, M.D., Tamara Tchkonia, Ph.D., Nathan LeBrasseur, Ph.D., James Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D., and David Monroe, Ph.D.
Drs. LeBrasseur, Tchkonia and Kirkland have financial interests related to this research, including Mayo Clinic patents and pending patents covering senolytic drugs and their uses. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.
###
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.
END
Drugs that kill "zombie" cells may benefit some older women, but not all, Mayo Clinic study finds
2024-07-02
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
New lab test to detect persistent HIV strains in Africa may aid search for cure
2024-07-02
New Lab Test to Detect Persistent HIV Strains in Africa May Aid Search for Cure
A multinational team led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators developed a test that will help measure the persistence of HIV in people affected by viral strains found predominantly in Africa—a vital tool in the search for an HIV cure that will benefit patients around the world.
The study, published in Nature Communications on July 2, helps fill a major gap in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) research. Most HIV studies have focused on strains circulating in Western countries, predominantly ...
RecombinHunt: predicting new pandemics through data analysis
2024-07-02
Milan, July 2, 2024 - Combating future pandemics through data analysis of recombinant virus genomes. A study published in the prestigious journal Nature Communication presents the promising results of RecombinHunt, a new data-driven method developed by the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano and the University of Milan, which can identify, with high accuracy and computational efficiency, recombinant SARS-CoV-2 genomes with one or two breakpoints.
Recombination, that is, the composition of two or more viral genomes to form a new genome, is an efficient molecular mechanism ...
A new breakthrough in understanding regeneration in a marine worm
2024-07-02
The sea worm Platynereis dumerilii is only a few centimetres long but has a remarkable ability: in just a few days, it can regenerate entire parts of its body after an injury or amputation. By focusing more specifically on the mechanisms at play in the regeneration of this worm’s tail, a research team led by a CNRS scientist1 has observed that gut cells play a role in the regeneration of the intestine as well as other tissues such as muscle and epidermis. Even more surprising, the team found that this ability of gut cells to regenerate other tissue varies according to their location: the closer they are to the posterior end of the ...
New molecules to modulate gene expression
2024-07-02
Genoa (Italy)/Grenoble (France) – 2nd July, 2024 - The correct functioning of cells relies heavily on the ability to finely control gene expression, a complex process by which the information contained in DNA is copied into RNA to eventually give rise to all the proteins and most of the regulatory molecules in the cell. If DNA can be imagined as a dense technical manual, gene expression is the method by which the cell extracts useful information from it.
Researchers at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genoa and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in ...
Study shows hairy skin does not become less sensitive with age
2024-07-02
Like most primates, humans are remarkably touchy-feely. Starved of touch, we release more of the stress hormone cortisol, which causes the immune system to be down-regulated and the heart rate and blood pressure to go up. On the other hand, touch causes the brain to be flooded by natural opioids, the ‘bonding hormone’ oxytocin, and the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin.
It is generally assumed that our sense of touch worsens with age, just like our vision and sense of hearing. However, new results are good news for those who wished they could stave off age-related decline forever: they show for the first time that a deterioration ...
Safer, swifter, smaller scar: new brain surgery approach targets difficult tumors at skull base
2024-07-02
Tumors arising in the base of the skull are among the most difficult to remove in neurosurgery. The current treatment method is to perform surgical removal by what is known as the microscopic anterior transpetrosal approach (ATPA). Seeking to lessen the risk of damage and postoperative complications, as the skull base is densely packed with nerves, blood vessels, and other tissues, not to mention the brain stem, an Osaka Metropolitan University medical research team is taking a new approach.
Led by Dr. Hiroki Morisako, a lecturer in ...
Barriers to care: transgender and gender-diverse peoples’ health care experiences
2024-07-02
Transgender, nonbinary, and gender-diverse people face barriers to accessing surgery and to the health system in general, describe authors in two new research papers published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
In many areas of life, people who identify as transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse experience discrimination even where there are laws to protect transgender human rights. Health systems also pose barriers for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-diverse people, who are more likely to delay obtaining ...
Study explores what motivates people to watch footage of disasters and extreme weather
2024-07-02
Extreme weather events such as hurricanes and storms have increased in both frequency and severity in recent years.
With that has come heightened public interest, resulting in often dramatic footage being live-streamed on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Discord.
Now, a new study conducted at the University of Plymouth has for the first time analysed what might be motivating people to watch these streams – in some instances for up to 12 hours at a time.
The research centred around the live-streaming ...
Ocean acidification turns fish off coral reefs
2024-07-02
A new study of coral reefs in Papua New Guinea shows ocean acidification simplifies coral structure, making crucial habitat less appealing to certain fish species.
While much media attention has focused on heat stress-induced coral bleaching, this finding, by a University of Adelaide research team led by Professor Ivan Nagelkerken, adds nuance to concerns about how global warming affects coral reefs.
Ocean acidification is caused by an increase in the level of carbon dioxide in oceanwater, leading to a reduction in pH. This makes calcium carbonate less available in the ocean, which corals use to build and repair their skeleton.
Professor Nagelkerken and ...
Will the Paris 2024 Olympics be a platform for activist protests amid global tensions?
2024-07-02
Athletes and sporting teams have frequently used the Olympics and other sporting events to make political statements through boycotts and protests. Ahead of the Paris Olympics kicking off this month and amidst the current UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) European Football Championship (Euro 2024), researchers are asking – should sport be a platform for promoting social justice issues?
The 2024 Paris Olympics, like the Euro 2024 soccer tournament, will be watched by billions of people and command media attention around the globe. ...