Senescence is a state of permanent cell cycle arrest. Cellular senescence can promote tissue remodelling but can negatively affect regenerative capacities of tissues and contribute to inflammation and the progression of cancer and ageing-related diseases. This Review highlights the chemical characteristics of senescence and how we can target senescent cells with small molecules to induce senescence in hyperproliferative tissues. Alternatively, these small molecules can also be administered to inhibit senescence or eliminate senescent cells as the basis of a promising strategy to treat ageing-related diseases. We also describe advances in detecting senescence in in vitro and in vivo models, such that we can evaluate response to treatments intended to induce or eliminate senescent cells.

衰老是永久性细胞周期停滞的状态。细胞衰老可促进组织重塑，但会对组织的再生能力产生负面影响，并有助于炎症，癌症以及与衰老相关的疾病的发展。这篇综述突出了衰老的化学特征，以及我们如何靶向具有小分子的衰老细胞以诱导过度增生组织中的衰老。可选地，这些小分子也可以被施用以抑制衰老或消除衰老细胞，作为治疗衰老相关疾病的有前途的策略的基础。我们还描述了在体外和体内模型中检测衰老的进展，因此我们可以评估对旨在诱导或消除衰老细胞的治疗的反应。