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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.

Life expectancy worldwide is continuously rising. At the same time, living to an old age also increases the risk of developing chronic pathological conditions. Understanding the common mechanisms that drive age-related diseases is necessary to treat these conditions and extend health span. These mechanisms, including impairments in immune system activity and accumulation of senescent cells, are the focus of extensive research. However, do the same molecular and cellular players of aging perform similar functions in all tissues and cell types? Jin et al.1 report a new role of natural killer (NK) cells in promoting brain aging, underscoring that not all tissues age the same.

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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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