苹果皮提取物可延缓衰老进程

“一天一苹果，医生远离你”是一句耳熟能详的健康谚语。不过，吃苹果的最好方法是带皮吃。据最新一期《自然—医学》（Nature Medicine）报道，美国科研人员发现，达沙替尼（一种白血病药物）和槲皮素（一种来自苹果皮的提取物）的组合可使老年小鼠的寿命延长36%。

衰老细胞通常在60多岁时出现在人体内，而在肥胖人群或慢性病患者体内出现得更早。这些异常细胞处于衰退状态，但其又不甘于死亡。有人认为，衰老细胞本身会催化衰老进程。

美国梅奥诊所詹姆斯·柯克兰领导的研究团队证明，情况确实如此。当研究人员向6个月大的小鼠注射少量衰老细胞时，它们的速度、耐力和力量在几周内下降了20%至50%，差不多是典型2岁老年小鼠的水平。

为了阻断衰老细胞的影响，研究团队选择了达沙替尼和槲皮素的组合，因为两者都会干扰衰老细胞避免死亡的方式。当研究团队将组合药物给予因注入衰老细胞而老化的幼鼠时，这些小鼠所失去的身体能力在两周内恢复了50%至100%。

当研究团队将药物给予年龄在24至27个月间的老年小鼠时，这些小鼠的速度、耐力和力量提高了30%到100%，而且它们的剩余寿命要比那些未给药老年小鼠长36%。（来源：科技日报 冯卫东）

Senolytics improve physical function and increase lifespan in old age

Abstract  Physical function declines in old age, portending disability, increased health expenditures, and mortality. Cellular senescence, leading to tissue dysfunction, may contribute to these consequences of aging, but whether senescence can directly drive age-related pathology and be therapeutically targeted is still unclear. Here we demonstrate that transplanting relatively small numbers of senescent cells into young mice is sufficient to cause persistent physical dysfunction, as well as to spread cellular senescence to host tissues. Transplanting even fewer senescent cells had the same effect in older recipients and was accompanied by reduced survival, indicating the potency of senescent cells in shortening health- and lifespan. The senolytic cocktail, dasatinib plus quercetin, which causes selective elimination of senescent cells, decreased the number of naturally occurring senescent cells and their secretion of frailty-related proinflammatory cytokines in explants of human adipose tissue. Moreover, intermittent oral administration of senolytics to both senescent cell–transplanted young mice and naturally aged mice alleviated physical dysfunction and increased post-treatment survival by 36% while reducing mortality hazard to 65%. Our study provides proof-of-concept evidence that senescent cells can cause physical dysfunction and decreased survival even in young mice, while senolytics can enhance remaining health- and lifespan in old mice.