Senescence is a cellular state that causes cells to stop dividing and instead release high amounts of signalling molecules into their surroundings – a phenomenon known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Senescence is usually triggered by cellular stress, such as DNA damage, drug treatment or the activation of cancer genes.  While temporarily induced senescence is a vital part of the healing process, chronic senescence has become widely implicated in cancer and many age-related diseases and is a fast-growing area of scientific exploration.  

Recent progress in understanding senescence has spurred interest in the development of approaches to target senescent cells, known as senotherapies. In this Review, the authors evaluate the status of various types of senotherapies, including senolytics that eliminate senescent cells, senomorphics that suppress the SASP, interventions that mitigate senescence and strategies that harness the immune system to clear senescent cells. The authors summarise how these approaches can be combined with cancer therapies, and discuss the challenges and opportunities in moving senotherapies into clinical practice. Such therapies have the potential to address root causes of age-related diseases and thus open new avenues for preventive therapies and treating multimorbidities – defined as living with more than one long-term health condition. 

Ageing and multimorbidity are some of the most pressing challenges for our society and are both key areas of focus for the overarching research strategy of the LMS. 

The review was published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery on 15 November 2024. 

Read the full publication here: Domhnall McHugh, Imanol Durán, and Jesús Gil., Senescence as a therapeutic target in cancer and age-related diseases, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (2024)