Targeting senescent cells in aging and COVID-19: from cellular mechanisms to therapeutic opportunities.

Targeting senescent cells in aging and COVID-19: from cellular mechanisms to therapeutic opportunities.

Publication date: Oct 02, 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global health crisis and significant social economic burden. While most individuals experience mild or non-specific symptoms, elderly individuals are at a higher risk of developing severe symptoms and life-threatening complications. Exploring the key factors associated with clinical severity highlights that key characteristics of aging, such as cellular senescence, immune dysregulation, metabolic alterations, and impaired regenerative potential, contribute to disruption of tissue homeostasis of the lung and worse clinical outcome. Senolytic and senomorphic drugs, which are anti-aging treatments designed to eliminate senescent cells or decrease the associated phenotypes, have shown promise in alleviating age-related dysfunctions and offer a novel approach to treating diseases that share certain aspects of underlying mechanisms with aging, including COVID-19. This review summarizes the current understanding of aging in COVID-19 progression, and highlights recent findings on anti-aging drugs that could be repurposed for COVID-19 treatment to complement existing therapies.

Concepts Keywords
Elderly Aging
Global Anti-aging Therapies
Homeostasis Cellular Senescence
Pandemic COVID-19
Senolytic

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease MESH COVID-19
disease MESH complications
pathway REACTOME Cellular Senescence

Original Article

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