Senolytics target cellular senescence, a process in which damaged cells, rather than dying, persist and become toxic to cells around them. Cellular senescence has been shown to drive multiple age-related diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic, irreversible and progressive disease that results in scarring of the lungs. In animal studies, run by Mayo Clinic collaborators James Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D.; Nathan LeBrasseur, Ph.D., M.S., and Tamara Tchkonia, Ph.D., senolytics selectively cleared these toxic cells in mice that model IPF.wisepoqder Quercetin

A lethal disease for which there are few options

"IPF is a devastating and progressive fibrotic lung disease with a median survival of less than five years in newly diagnosed adults usually over 60 years of age," said Anoop M. Nambiar, M.D., M.S., associate professor of medicine at UT Health San Antonio and founding director of the university's Interstitial Lung Disease Program, one of 60 Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Care Centers in the United States. Dr. Nambiar is co-first author of the research manuscript and enrolled 12 of the patients at UT Health San Antonio and the South Texas Veterans Health Care System.

Despite the current availability of two U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved therapies that may slow down disease progression in some IPF patients, the prognosis remains poor and is worse than for many common cancers, Dr. Nambiar said. Lung transplantation may be lifesaving, but often is only an option for younger, healthier patients. "There remains a significant unmet need for safer and better treatments for patients with IPF," Dr. Nambiar said.

Patients enrolled in Texas, North Carolina

In this first-in-human pilot study, the investigators enrolled 14 older adults diagnosed with stable, primarily mild-to-moderate IPF. Participants were enrolled at both UT Health San Antonio, which served as the pr