Therapies against cellular aging may help treat metabolic diseases

A growing body of evidence implicates cellular senescence—when cells age and permanently stop dividing—as an important contributor to metabolic dysfunction that can lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.

A review in the Journal of Internal Medicine explores the research connecting senescent cells to metabolic diseases and highlights the potential of “senotherapeutics” in treatment strategies.

The authors note that senescent cells accumulate in metabolic tissues where they secrete factors that disrupt tissue function by promoting inflammation and fibrosis (or scarring).

With this information, investigators have developed senotherapeutic interventions that include senolytics (which eliminate senescent cells), senomorphics (which suppress factors secreted by senescent cells), and senosensitizers (which render senescent cells more vulnerable to clearance).

“By targeting senescent cells, senotherapeutics mitigate one of the root drivers of age- and obesity-related metabolic disease, opening a powerful new frontier in modern medicine,” said corresponding author Allyson Palmer, MD, Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic.

“This emerging class of therapies could transform how we treat and even prevent metabolic disease.”