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.

Department of Natural Drugs Faculty of Pharmacy Masaryk University 612 00 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Pathology Medical University of Vienna 1090 Vienna Austria

Department of Zoology Government College University Lahore Lahore 54000 Pakistan

Institute of Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine Center for Pathophysiology Infectiology and Immunology Medical University of Vienna 1090 Vienna Austria

Institute of Vascular Biology and Thrombosis Research Center for Physiology and Pharmacology Medical University of Vienna 1090 Vienna Austria

Karl Landsteiner Institute for Cell Based Therapy in Gynecology 2100 Korneuburg Austria

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