Senolytics:
A lot of the smart money is on a class of drugs called senolytics, which seek out and destroy worn-out cells that build up as we age. These cells have suffered some sort of irreversible damage and entered a state called senescence where they hit the emergency stop, hunker down and await destruction.
This process probably evolved to stop cells from becoming cancerous. But it eventually backfires. “Senescent cells are normally cleared out, but that goes wrong during ageing and they accumulate and cause tissue damage,” says Partridge. The cells are like zombies: beyond repair, yet undead and causing havoc. They pump out a range of inflammatory proteins that are a major cause of inflammaging. “Senescent calls are very bad for you,” says Lynne Cox, a biochemist at the University of Oxford. “They destroy the tissues around them.” [“Anti-ageing drugs are coming that could keep you healthier for longer,” Graham Lawton, NewScientist (27 April 2019, paywall)]
