Three “senolytics”—compounds in drugs that could help stave off the effects of aging (such as cancer, type-2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and viral infection)—have been discovered by researchers at the University of Edinburgh.

These algorithms were trained on already-published data, making them cost-effective, the researchers note.

Lab tests in human cells revealed that three of the compounds—ginkgetin, periplocin and oleandri—were able to remove senescent* cells without damaging healthy cells.

All three are natural products found in traditional herbal medicines, the team says. Oleandri was found to be more effective than the best-performing known senolytic drug of its kind.

*Cellular senescence is “a stress response involved in aging and diverse disease processes, including cancer, type-2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and viral infection,” the researchers explain.

Citation: Quintanilla, A., Elliott, R. J., Dawson, J. C., Sun, J., Campa, V. M., Carragher, N. O., Acosta, J. C., & Oyarzún, D. A. (2023). Discovery of senolytics using machine learning. Nature Communications, 14(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39120-1 (open-access)

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