Scientific publications
- [CANCER GENE THERAPY]
- [RNA BIOLOGY AND THERAPY]
- [DNA AND RNA MEDICINE]
- [ADVANCED THERAPIES FOR RARE LIVER DISEASES]
Treatment with the senolytics dasatinib/quercetin reduces SARS-CoV-2-related mortality in mice
Andrés Pastor-Fernández 1, Antonio R Bertos 2, Arantzazu Sierra-Ramírez 1, Javier Del Moral-Salmoral 3 4, Javier Merino 3 4, Ana I de Ávila 4 5, Cristina Olagüe 6, Ricardo Villares 7, Gloria González-Aseguinolaza 6, María Ángeles Rodríguez 8, Manuel Fresno 3 4, Nuria Gironés 3 4, Matilde Bustos 8, Cristian Smerdou 6, Pablo Jose Fernandez-Marcos 1, Cayetano von Kobbe 4
Abstract
The enormous societal impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly harsh for some social groups, such as the elderly. Recently, it has been suggested that senescent cells could play a central role in pathogenesis by exacerbating the pro-inflammatory immune response against SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, the selective clearance of senescent cells by senolytic drugs may be useful as a therapy to ameliorate the symptoms of COVID-19 in some cases.
Using the established COVID-19 murine model K18-hACE2, we demonstrated that a combination of the senolytics dasatinib and quercetin (D/Q) significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2-related mortality, delayed its onset, and reduced the number of other clinical symptoms.
The increase in senescent markers that we detected in the lungs in response to SARS-CoV-2 may be related to the post-COVID-19 sequelae described to date. These results place senescent cells as central targets for the treatment of COVID-19, and make D/Q a new and promising therapeutic tool.
CITA DEL ARTÍCULO Aging Cell. 2023 Mar;22(3):e13771. doi: 10.1111/acel.13771. Epub 2023 Jan 26.
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