On September 7, 2023, Nature Medicine published new research funded by AFAR and co-authored by AFAR President James L. Kirkland, MD, PhD, as well as AFAR grantees including Nicolas Musi, MD, Miranda Orr, PhD, and Juan Pablo Palavicini, PhD, on the feasibility and results of a first phase trial targeting mild Alzheimer’s disease through senolytic therapy.
Researchers targeted senescent cells—which have been observed in Alzheimer’s patients—through a treatment involving the repurposing of a cancer drug (dasatinib) and an antioxidant (quercetin). While early results of this research indicate potential in targeting these senescent cells safely and effectively in patients, the authors also cite the need for further research into “senolytic effects that need to be confirmed in fully powered, placebo-controlled studies.”
This published research was supported in part through Dr. Orr’s recent Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Award in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research.
Read the full article, “Senolytic therapy in mild Alzheimer’s disease: a phase 1 feasibility trial”, in Nature Medicine with subscription here.
Learn more about the work of AFAR experts to advance our understanding of senescence and senolytics here.
Dr. Kirkland is AFAR's President, a 2020 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction recipient, a 2012 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Breakthroughs in Gerontology (BIG) Award recipient, and a professor of physiology and professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Musi is a 2007 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging Scholar recipient. He is also the Director of the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, Director of the Center for Healthy Aging, the Associate Director for Research Programs at San Antonio Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC), and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas, San Antonio. He is also co-leader of the Integrated Physiology of Aging Core at the Nathan Shock Center at UT Health San Antonio (as part of the NIA’s Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging for which AFAR serves as the Coordinating Center) and Director of the San Antonio Claude D. Pepper Older American Independence Center (as part of the NIA’s Research Centers Collaborative Network which AFAR manages).
Dr. Orr is a 2022 Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research recipient, as well as an associate professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine and of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. This published research was supported in part through Dr. Orr’s Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Award.
Dr. Palavicini is a 2022 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty recipient, as well as an assistant professor at UT Health SA’s Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging studies and the Department of Medicine, Diabetes Division.
