Tier 2 — strong

Senolytic therapy in mild Alzheimer's disease: a phase 1 feasibility trial

Mitzi M Gonzales, Valentina R Garbarino, Tiffany F Kautz, Juan Pablo Palavicini, Marisa Lopez-Cruzan, Shiva Kazempour Dehkordi, Julia J Mathews, Habil Zare, Peng Xu, Bin Zhang, Crystal Franklin, Mohamad Habes, Suzanne Craft, Ronald C Petersen, Tamara Tchkonia, James L Kirkland, Arash Salardini, Sudha Seshadri, Nicolas Musi, Miranda E Orr
Nature medicine 2023 29(10):2481-2488

Bibliography

PubMed
PMID 37679434
PubMed Central
PMC10875739
Funding
Indexed grant support: T32 AG021890 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R01 NS017950 — NINDS NIH HHS — United States; R01 AG054076 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; RF1 AG059421 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R01 AG068030 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R01 AG033193 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R01 AG065301 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R01 AG080821 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R01 AG068293 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; I01 BX005717 — BLRD VA — United States; R01 AG075684 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; U24 AG057437 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; RF1 AG065301 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R01 AG069690 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; U01 AG046170 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R37 AG013925 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; U01 AG022307 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R21 NS125171 — NINDS NIH HHS — United States; P30 AG013319 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; UF1 NS125417 — NINDS NIH HHS — United States; R01 AG077472 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R01 HL105756 — NHLBI NIH HHS — United States; U19 AG024904 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; U24 AG059624 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R01 AG057896 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R01 AG066524 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; P01 AG062413 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; RF1 AG063507 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; TL1 TR002647 — NCATS NIH HHS — United States; U19 NS115388 — NINDS NIH HHS — United States; RF1 NS112391 — NINDS NIH HHS — United States; P30 AG066546 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; P30 AG044271 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; P30 AG062677 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; PTC REG-20-651687 — Alzheimer's Association — United States; R01 AG013925 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; P30 AG072947 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; U01 AG006786 — NIA NIH HHS — United States; R33 AG061456 — NIA NIH HHS — United States. The indexed list may not contain the complete funding declaration.
Competing interests
Reported disclosure: Competing interests. M.M.G. reports personal stock in Abbvie. R.C.P. reports personal fees from Roche, no personal fees from Eisai, and personal fees from Genentech, personal fees from Eli Lilly and personal fees from Nestle, outside the submitted work. R.C.P. receives royalties from Oxford University Press and UpToDate and receives fees from Medscape for educational activities. J.L.K. and T.T. have a patent for Killing Senescent Cells and Treating Senescence-Associated Conditions Using an SRC Inhibitor and a Flavonoid with royalties paid to Mayo Clinic by Unity Biotechnologies and a patent for Treating Cognitive Decline and Other Neurodegenerative Conditions by Selectively Removing Senescent Cells from Neurological Tissue with royalties paid to Mayo Clinic by Unity Biotechnologies. S.C. reports Scientific Advisory Board membership for T3D Therapeutics and the Neurodegenerative Consortium, outside the submitted work. M.E.O., H.Z. and S.K.D. have a patent for Biosignature and therapeutic approach for neuronal senescence, which is pending. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

Study snapshot

DesignOpen-label phase 1 feasibility trial
ModelHuman intervention research
Sample5 adults with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease
InterventionIntermittent oral dasatinib plus quercetin
Duration12 weeks
EndpointsCognitive, mood, or sleep measures

What the study showed, in plain terms

Published in 2023, this source examined senescence and longevity. Design: Open-label phase 1 feasibility trial. Sample/model: 5 adults with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease. The exposure or intervention was Intermittent oral dasatinib plus quercetin. Follow-up or treatment period: 12 weeks.

Dasatinib reached cerebrospinal fluid, while quercetin was not detected there. Cognition and imaging did not significantly improve.

Uncontrolled five-person feasibility study. Biomarker shifts do not establish dementia treatment or prevention.

Continue with Quercetin Data Center

For topic-level interpretation, read Is Quercetin a Senolytic? Human Evidence vs Longevity Claims. This is a related guide; the citation panel separately identifies articles that directly cite this paper.

Key findings

  • Dasatinib reached cerebrospinal fluid, while quercetin was not detected there.
  • Cognition and imaging did not significantly improve.
  • The recorded outcome domains were Cognitive, mood, or sleep measures.
  • The result applies to the tested exposure: Intermittent oral dasatinib plus quercetin; 12 weeks.

What this study can and cannot tell us

  • Uncontrolled five-person feasibility study. Biomarker shifts do not establish dementia treatment or prevention.
  • Without a sufficiently blinded concurrent control, time effects, expectations, co-interventions and regression toward the mean can explain part of an apparent improvement.
  • Companion or correction records are linked below. They should not be counted automatically as independent replications; see the individual source notes for the relationship.
  • Source basis: Source check: accessible full text and indexed metadata. Missing method details, funding information or participant denominators are not inferred.

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