Halting the relentless march of so-called ‘zombie cells’ that drive aging and age-related diseases could be a step closer following a University of Dundee breakthrough.

Experts at the University’s School of Medicine have identified a means of eliminating senescent cells, cells shown to play a key role in a variety of age-related diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases.

Working with colleagues at the University of Athens, the university has developed a platform that allows senescent cells to be effectively targeted and eliminated, blocking their contribution to the progression of age-related diseases.

This breakthrough research has been published in the journal Nature Aging.

Professor Vassilis Gorgoulis, Chair of Clinical Molecular Pathology at Dundee, said, “Zombie cells are known, over time, to lead to serious life-threatening diseases linked to the aging process. Until now, we have been unable to eliminate these without side effects to the host.

“This research provides, for the first time, a tangible tool for accurate elimination of senescent cells in vitro and in vivo, thereby satisfying a long-standing unmet need in the field.

“The platform that we have developed now paves the way for the discovery and advancement of clinically relevant compounds against aging and age-related diseases, such as cancer.”

Senescent cells are coined “zombie cells” as they are still alive within the body but do not function as normal. These cells are no longer capable of dividing and can negatively impact the cells around them, over time weakening our tissues, organs and immune system.

This subsequently leads to aging and disease. Because of this, the removal of senescent cells is anticipated to facilitate treatment of age-related diseases, such as cancer.

Identifying senescent cells is a prerequisite if they are to be successfully removed, but this has previously proven challenging. Current senolytics, the class of anticancer drugs tasked with the elimination of senescent cells, are unable to target these selectively as they damage healthy cells and tissue around them, resulting in side effects for patients.

However, Professor Gorgoulis and colleagues have been able to develop a senolytic platform capable of effectively targeting and eliminating senescent cells, with the efficiency of the model ensuring minimal side effects.

With the platform now proven, Professor Russell Petty, Chair of Medical Oncology at Dundee’s School of Medicine and co-author of the paper, said that the research had the potential to transform future treatments for cancer.

“This work provides a first-in-class agent and demonstrates pre-clinical proof of concept for the highly selective elimination of senescent cells,” he said.

“Accordingly, it opens up the possibility of the selective elimination of senescent cells in humans in the future, which could lead to the development of a whole new class of anti-cancer medicines and have applications for other age-related diseases as well.”