One of the more interesting studies of cellular senescence in recent years was the demonstration that topical treatment with rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR signaling, over a period of months meaningfully reduced the burden of cellular senescence in the skin of aged individuals, leading to improvement in skin quality. It did not achieve this goal by directly destroying senescent cells, as rapamycin is not a senolytic drug. It acts instead to prevent some damaged cells from becoming senescent, or blunt the accumulation of damage in some vulnerable cells, or otherwise reduce the pace at which cells become senescent. That in …
Upregulation of Autophagy via mTOR Inhibition Reduces Tendon Stem Cell Senescence
One of the more interesting studies of cellular senescence in recent years was the demonstration that topical treatment with rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR signaling, over a period of months meaningfully reduced the burden of cellular senescence in the skin of aged individuals, leading to improvement in skin quality. It did not achieve this goal by directly destroying senescent cells, as rapamycin is not a senolytic drug. It acts instead to prevent some damaged cells from becoming senescent, or blunt the accumulation of damage in some vulnerable cells, or otherwise reduce the pace at which cells become senescent. That in …