Lipophilic Statins Eliminate Senescent Endothelial Cells by inducing Anoikis-Related Cell Death

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Authors

BELAKOVA Barbora WEDIGE Nicholas K AWAD Ezzat M HESS Simon OSZWALD Andre FELLNER Marlene KHAN Shafaat Y RESCH Ulrike LIPOVAC Markus ŠMEJKAL Karel UHRIN Pavel BREUSS Johannes M WAGNER Kay-Dietrich SONG Ping

Year of publication 2023
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Cells
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Pharmacy

Citation
Web https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10742095/
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells12242836
Keywords endothelial cells; senescence; senolytics; statins; anoikis; apoptosis
Description Pre-clinical studies from the recent past have indicated that senescent cells can negatively affect health and contribute to premature aging. Targeted eradication of these cells has been shown to improve the health of aged experimental animals, leading to a clinical interest in finding compounds that selectively eliminate senescent cells while sparing non-senescent ones. In our study, we identified a senolytic capacity of statins, which are lipid-lowering drugs prescribed to patients at high risk of cardiovascular events. Using two different models of senescence in human vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs), we found that statins preferentially eliminated senescent cells, while leaving non-senescent cells unharmed. We observed that the senolytic effect of statins could be negated with the co-administration of mevalonic acid and that statins induced cell detachment leading to anoikis-like apoptosis, as evidenced by real-time visualization of caspase-3/7 activation. Our findings suggest that statins possess a senolytic property, possibly also contributing to their described beneficial cardiovascular effects. Further studies are needed to explore the potential of short-term, high-dose statin treatment as a candidate senolytic therapy.
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