concept

Senolytic

A molecule designed to find and kill senescent cells specifically, sparing healthy ones. It works by switching off the very survival proteins a senescent cell relies on to avoid death, letting it finish itself off. In aged mice, drug pairs such as dasatinib with quercetin, or the flavonoid fisetin, reduce senescent-cell burden, improve cardiac function, endurance and vascular compliance, and extend median lifespan by roughly a tenth. In humans, early trials in pulmonary fibrosis and diabetic kidney disease show falling inflammatory markers and modest functional gains, but no senolytic has been shown to slow the underlying rate of human aging. This is geroscience's most promising direction, not a cure.