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Natural killers of cognition

Nature Neuroscience volume 24, pages 2–4 (2021)Cite this article

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One of the mechanisms driving aging and neurodegenerative diseases is the accumulation of senescent cells, while their elimination mitigates age-related decline. A new report details how, with aging, changes in the dentate gyrus microenvironment lead to natural-killer-cell-mediated clearance of neurogenic senescent cells, resulting in cognitive decline.

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Fig. 1: Elimination of senescent cells in normal aging and in neurodegenerative diseases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Cell Biology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Nurit Papismadov & Valery Krizhanovsky

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  1. Nurit Papismadov
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  2. Valery Krizhanovsky
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Correspondence to Valery Krizhanovsky.

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Competing interests

V.K. is an author of patents in the field of senescence and senolytics.

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Papismadov, N., Krizhanovsky, V. Natural killers of cognition. Nat Neurosci 24, 2–4 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-020-00749-6

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