Therapeutic solutions to stop the signs of aging and extend human lifespan

4 min readApr 7, 2021

In the past, we hardly understand why they experience old age and because research and technology are not able to explain the main causes of why people age faster than others, humans had to accept that it was just part of life and that there is nothing that we can do about it.

However, due to recent technological advancements humanity is now perceiving a new kind of reality. Scientists and researchers have now uncovered several reasons why people age and what causes age-related diseases.

Before a cure can be given humans had to first understand what is causing them to age. One of the main contributing factors of aging is the Senescent cells.

What are Senescent cells?

The first encounter of senescent cells occurred in the 1960’s, but it was only in 2010 when breakthrough discoveries were made in the name of science. Senescent cells are one of the many causes why humans start aging. As we grow older, there is an increase in the number of cells that start to enter the stage of senescence. These cells no longer divide or support the tissue where they are located, and they begin to release harmful chemical signals that cause inflammation that speeds up the process of aging.

However, not all senescent cells are bad, they serve a function inside the body. These cells are needed to provide safety measures for cells to prevent the spread of damaged cells or cell death. Senescence is one way to keep us from suffering from cancer and promote healthy tissue repair. It only starts becoming trouble when there is too much of it inside the body.

Cellular senescence is only one of the key driving factors why a person experiences aging and other types of diseases like cancer. The body accumulates senescent cells later in life and this is largely due to stress response through permanent cell cycle arrest. During the early years of a human being, they need senescent cells for tissue repair and growth factors however as one gets older the role of senescent cells become negative. It starts impairing tissues homeostasis through many ways. It means as we get older, the senescent cells stars to hamper the regenerative capacity of our tissue leading to inflammation that starts the hallmark of aging.

Removal of Senescent Cells

Due to this discovery, researchers started discovering therapeutic ways to decrease the levels of senescent cells in the body. Genetic interventions were done and first experimented on mice to effectively delay the aging process.

Senolytics

A new drug called Senolytics was used to reduce the number of senescent cells in mice and it proved to be effective. Senolytics proved to extend health span and reduced the range of pre-existing age-related symptoms like osteoporosis, frailty and cardiovascular diseases. Senolytics could rejuvenate the aging tissue stem cells.

Different ways to target Senescent cells

Scientists and researchers continued to create and study therapeutic interventions against senescent cells that cause aging. Alternative drugs like senolytics, block the pro-survival pathways that are active in senescent cells. Another approach that they use it so target senescent cells using immunotherapy using immune modulators or by increasing immune effector cells.

This new type of drug could slow down the aging process in mice, it removed symptoms of weakness and frailty thus extending the lifespan of the animal. These results have opened new possibilities for humans and the benefits are deemed enormous.

The research was carried out by a team in Mayo Clinic, The Scripps Institute, and other institutions. It was officially published in the journal Aging Cell yesterday. These developments have inspired countless of research that is dedicated to extending human life span and combating the signs of aging including age-related diseases.