Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

Insights into senolytic drugs for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the brain

Nature Aging volume 3, pages 1480–1481 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Senescent cells in the brain contribute to age-related neurodegeneration. Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in human brain organoids, animals and post-mortem brain samples from patients with COVID-19 reveals virus-induced senescence. Pharmacological senolytic treatment following SARS-CoV-2 infection improves COVID-19 neuropathology and could help to protect people from long COVID.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Increased accumulation of senescent cells in COVID-19 post-mortem brain samples and SARS-CoV-2-infected human brain organoids.

References

  1. Xu, E., Xie, Y. & Al-Aly, Z. Long-term neurologic outcomes of COVID-19. Nat. Med. 28, 2406–2415 (2022). This paper presents human data showing increased risk of neurological sequelae following the post-acute phase of COVID-19.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Baker, D. & Petersen, R. Cellular senescence in brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases: evidence and perspectives. J. Clin. Invest. 128, 1208–1216 (2018). This review describes current understanding of the role of cellular senescence in driving cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Lee, S. et al. Virus-induced senescence is a driver and therapeutic target in COVID-19. Nature 599, 283–289 (2021). This paper reports that SARS-CoV-2 triggers cellular senescence, contributing to COVID-19 lung disease in vivo.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Stein, S. R. et al. SARS-CoV-2 infection and persistence in the human body and brain at autopsy. Nature 612, 758–763 (2022). This paper demonstrates SARS-CoV-2 long-term retention in multiple non-respiratory tissues, including the brain.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Chaib, S., Tchkonia, T. & Kirkland, J. L. Cellular senescence and senolytics: the path to the clinic. Nat. Med. 28, 1556–1568 (2022). This review provides an overview of recent and ongoing human clinical trials involving senolytic drugs.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Aguado, J. et al. Senolytic therapy alleviates physiological human brain aging and COVID-19 neuropathology. Nat. Aging, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-023-00519-6 (2023).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Insights into senolytic drugs for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the brain. Nat Aging 3, 1480–1481 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-023-00525-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-023-00525-8

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing