senescence

Overview

Senescence is a stable state of essentially irreversible cell-cycle arrest that cells can enter in response to diverse stresses, including DNA damage, oncogene activation, telomere attrition, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction. It is a fundamental biological process with important roles in development, tissue repair, tumor suppression, and organismal ageing. Senescent cells remain metabolically active and often acquire a senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), characterized by secretion of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, and proteases that can alter the tissue microenvironment.

Although senescence can be beneficial in acute contexts such as wound healing and limiting malignant transformation, persistent senescent-cell accumulation is associated with chronic inflammation, impaired regeneration, fibrosis, and age-related disease. In biomedical research, senescence is therefore studied both as a mechanism of ageing and as a potential therapeutic target for geroprotective interventions, including strategies aimed at reducing senescent-cell burden or modulating SASP signaling.

Focus of Latest Publications

Recent publications have examined senescence primarily through the lens of biological aging, using epigenetic clocks, frailty indices, and other aging biomarkers. In a cross-sectional cohort of exceptionally healthy individuals, a saliva-based 9-CpG epigenetic clock was used to assess associations between biological age and supplement or drug use. Delayed-release calcium-alpha-ketoglutarate plus vitamin supplementation was associated with a lower Age Residual, while regular AKG showed a smaller, non-significant effect; coenzyme Q10 and dAKG were associated with lower Age Residual in a longitudinal subset, but these findings did not remain significant after multivariate correction. Another study in UK Biobank and Lifelines linked higher long-term exposure to PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 with accelerated biological aging, and showed that biological aging mediated part of the association between air pollution and mortality or hospitalization.

Other studies extended this aging-focused work to broader determinants of senescence-related phenotypes. A multiomics comparison across ethnicity, geography, and age found ancestry- and geography-related molecular changes affecting metabolism, immune function, microbiome composition, and biological aging, with geography influencing biological age in different directions across populations. A separate study reported that adverse events in childhood and adulthood were associated with molecular, clinical, and functional markers of biological ageing. In a randomized clinical trial, caloric restriction was evaluated for its effects on organ-specific biological aging, reflecting continued interest in interventions that may modify senescence-associated trajectories.

Several publications also connected senescence-related biology with disease contexts and clinical outcomes. A cross-disease microglial transcriptomic analysis spanning aging, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and frontotemporal dementia identified a shared microglial transcriptional program associated with inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes, and highlighted SPP1 as a biomarker of disease-associated microglia states. In oncology, advanced age was associated with higher cancer-specific mortality in bone-only metastatic prostate cancer, and another study examined whether age, comorbidity, and frailty were associated with complications after minimally invasive esophagectomy. Together, these studies show that recent work on senescence has focused on measuring biological aging, identifying environmental and lifestyle modifiers, and linking aging-related biology to disease risk and outcomes.

Key Publications

• NEWJul Advance RI-CTR: Advancing a Decade of Discovery for Clinical & Translational Research in Rhode Island. (Rhode Island medical journal (2013), 2026, PMID 42348621): "Advance RI-CTR prioritizes chronic disease and aging, behavioral and mental health, and maternal and child health, with crosscutting emphases on substance use disorder, social determinants of health, and healthcare delivery."
• Jun Supplements and Drugs Are Associated With Biological Age in a Cohort of Exceptionally Healthy Individuals. (Aging cell, 2026, PMID 42166733): "...served as the primary biomarker of biological age."
• Jun Biological aging as a mediator of the association between air pollution and all-cause mortality and hospitalization: Evidence from the UK Biobank and Lifelines cohorts. (Mechanisms of ageing and development, 2026, PMID 42142597): "Higher air pollution exposure was associated with accelerated biological aging."
• May Neurobehavioral Profiles in Young Steroid-Naive Boys With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Baseline Data Analysis From the FOR-DMD Trial. (Neurology, 2026, PMID 42139655): "Secondary objectives were to examine associations with developmental features (speech and learning difficulties), motor function, parent respondent type, brain dystrophin isoform, age, and country."
• May A comparison of deep multiomics profiles across ethnicity, geography, and age. (Cell, 2026, PMID 42134306): "Geography influenced biological age: East Asians showed lower biological age in their ancestral regions, whereas individuals of European ancestry exhibited lower biological age in the US/Canada than in Europe."
• May Are age, comorbidity, and frailty associated with complications after minimally invasive esophagectomy? A multicenter cohort study. (Diseases of the esophagus : official journal of the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus, 2026, PMID 42119034): "This study investigates the relationship between age, comorbidity, frailty, and complications after MIE."
• Jun Determining Awareness of Age-Related Changes in Individuals Aged 40 and Over Applying to Family Health Centres in Türkiye. (Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 2026, PMID 42053311): "This study aims to reveal awareness of age-related changes among individuals aged 40 and over applying to family health centres and to examine whether awareness levels differ by sociodemographic characteristics."
• Apr Adverse events in both childhood and adulthood are associated with molecular, clinical and functional markers of ageing. (BMC medicine, 2026, PMID 42046058): "The aim of this study was to quantify the independent and joint associations of adversity experienced in childhood and/or adulthood with molecular, clinical and functional markers of biological ageing."
• Apr Advanced age increases cancer-specific mortality in bone-only metastatic prostate cancer: a SEER analysis. (Scientific reports, 2026, PMID 42036417): "At multivariate analysis, older age remained independently associated with higher CSM (≥ 80 years: subdistribution hazard ratio 1.78, 95% CI 1.45-2.19)."
• Jun A Cross-Disease Microglial Transcriptional Program Characterizes Neurodegeneration and Highlights SPP1 as a Biomarker. (Glia, 2026, PMID 42011986): "...from multiple neurodegenerative conditions, including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's disease, aging, and Parkinson's disease."