New therapy removes senescent cells, rejuvenates old mice, and keeps young mice from aging
"No other therapy right now can do this"
Longevity Hound
January 30, 2024
Corina Amor Vargas, one of the lead scientists in this new study
What's the news: Genetically engineered T cells hunt down senescent cells in mice with bodywide rejuvenation effects.
Why should we believe it: This news is based on a new study published last week by scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
The scientists engineered a special chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that targets senescent cells (which accumulate during aging with harmful effects). The result of this therapy:
Treated mice had lower body weight, improved metabolism and glucose tolerance
Treated mice showed increased physical activity
The effects persisted after just one treatment
"If we give it to aged mice, they rejuvenate. If we give it to young mice, they age slower. No other therapy right now can do this."
Why this is a big deal: Senescent cell removal is one of the main approaches to extending healthspan and youthspan. However, most anti-senescence studies so far used small drug-like molecules, which need to be given continuously and can have side-effects.
On the other hand, this CAR T cell therapy uses the body's own cells to hunt down senescent cells. To make things even better, this therapy only needs to be given once to persist. To make it even, even better, CAR T cell therapy is already approved in humans as a cancer treatment, and adapting it to fight senescence might be a straightforward task.
So what's next: As Harvard's David Sinclair pointed out, this research is very exciting, but two immediate questions pop up. The first is if this treatment negatively impacts wound healing (since senescent cells, in spite of all their problems, do contribute to normal wound healing).
The second is whether this CAR T treatment extends life and not just healthspan. The good news is, the same team is already working on answering this question. Whatever they might find, the future of longevity is looking bright.