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Ageing

Tools to eliminate senescent cells

Nature volume 545, pages 294–295 (2017)Cite this article

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Ageing and many diseases are partly driven by the accumulation of damaged cells that no longer divide. It emerges that these senescent cells can be eradicated in mice using a drug that interferes with the activity of the protein FOXO4.

If cells incur too much damage, they undergo either a self-elimination process known as apoptosis or a self-disabling process called senescence. Senescent cells can be long-lived, and so accumulate in aged and damaged organs1. The elimination of senescent cells is known2,3,4,5,6 to increase healthy lifespan and reduce the severity of age-related diseases in mice. Writing in Cell, Baar et al.7 expand our understanding of this phenomenon. They report that senescent cells depend on the transcription factor forkhead box protein O4 (FOXO4) for their survival, and show in mouse models that both age-associated defects and tissue dysfunction caused by chemotherapy can be reversed by pharmacologically perturbing the function of this protein.

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Figure 1: Targeting a damaged cell population.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, Madrid, E28029, Spain

    Manuel Serrano

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  1. Manuel Serrano
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Correspondence to Manuel Serrano.

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Serrano, M. Tools to eliminate senescent cells. Nature 545, 294–295 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22493

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