Does clearing senescent cells with senolytics help against ageing?
Senolytics show impressive results in mouse studies, but in humans the evidence is too thin for use outside clinical trials. Self-medication with Dasatinib is inadvisable due to its side effects and cancer-biology risks.
Senescent cells stop dividing but do not die off. They accumulate as you get older and continuously pump inflammatory substances into their surroundings. In mouse studies, removing those cells with senolytics has been strikingly successful: more than 40 conditions, ranging from heart and kidney problems to bone disease and brain disorders, appeared to improve or slow down. But what works in mice does not by any means always work in humans.
In humans the evidence is still very thin. The most-cited human study tested a combination of the cancer drug Dasatinib (100 mg) and the supplement Quercetin (1000 mg) in just 9 people with diabetic kidney disease, over 3 days1. Within 11 days the number of senescent cells in fat tissue and skin decreased measurably, and inflammatory substances in the blood also fell. However, there was no control group, and several of the researchers involved have a financial interest through patents at the Mayo Clinic.
Clinical studies into senolytics are under way for diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis, Alzheimer's disease, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. Whether they also make a difference for the human brain is an open question, with many uncertainties still remaining2,3. Large-scale evidence on safety and effectiveness is lacking for the time being.
An important safety point: senescent cells are not simply harmful. Shortly after they arise, they actually suppress tumours. Only when they remain present for a long time do they become cancer-promoting through their inflammatory secretions4,5. Using senolytics at the wrong moment can therefore carry risks. Dasatinib is moreover a cancer drug with known side effects.
Attention is also being paid to a senolytics cream for the skin, but that idea is speculative and has not been clinically demonstrated6. Quercetin is freely available as a supplement, but the available data in humans are far too limited to support a safe or effective dose for healthy people. Experts agree: senolytics belong in clinical studies, not in your own medicine cabinet.
Seven claims are based on six PMID sources (31542391, 32686219, 35015337, 35953721, 38030088, 36045302, 33262144, 35012887). The only direct human study (PMID 31542391) involves 9 participants without a placebo group. The remaining sources are primarily review articles on animal data and mechanistic research. No randomised controlled trials in humans are available in this source collection.