New technology enables selective removal of ageing cells

A team of researchers in South Korea has achieved a “significant breakthrough” in the treatment of age-related diseases.

Technology developed by scientists at the Department of Chemistry at UNIST and Konkuk University offers a promising new approach to treating age-related diseases.

The technology works by selectively removing ageing cells without harming normal healthy cells. The researchers hope this new development will redefine the future of healthcare and usher in a new era of targeted therapeutic interventions.

Ageing cells, known as senescent cells, contribute to various inflammatory conditions and age-related ailments as humans age. However, by precisely targeting and eliminating ageing cells while sparing normal healthy cells, the technology opens up new possibilities for designing preclinical and clinical trials in the future.

In their study, the team designed organic molecules that selectively target receptors overexpressed in the membranes of ageing cells. By leveraging the higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) found in ageing cells, these molecules promote the formation of disulfide bonds and create oligomers that bind together.

Through the self-assembly of these oligomers, the researchers successfully created artificial proteins with a stable structure. These protein-like nanoassemblies exhibited strong binding affinity to the mitochondrial membranes of ageing cells, leading to membrane disruption and subsequent cell self-destruction.

“The selective removal of ageing cells by targeting the mitochondria and inducing dysfunction has been successfully demonstrated in our experiments,” said professor Ja Hyoung Ryu from the Department of Chemistry at UNIST who led the study. “This approach represents a new paradigm for treating age-related diseases.”

The study is published in the online version of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) and is supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) and the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT).