Unexpectedly, this cocktail of drugs can reduce aging-related disc degeneration

In the United States, chronic back pain affects 15 million adults, causing billions of dollars in medical costs and lost workdays

"Once the intervertebral disc begins to degenerate, regeneration rarely occurs," Dr.

Surgery or steroid injection is the choice for the treatment of low back pain caused by lumbar disc degeneration, but most patients do not meet the criteria for surgery, and epidural steroid injection does not work in most cases

In collaboration with Dr.

As we age, every tissue in the body accumulates senescent cells

Recent research shows that this is indeed the case

"Just because drugs work in one tissue does not mean they will work in another tissue," Dr.

In order to find out whether senolytics can improve the degeneration of intervertebral discs related to aging, Dr.

The weekly injection alleviated the formation of intervertebral discs, but it was not the way Dr.

Compared with mice taking placebo, young and middle-aged mice showed fewer disc degeneration and senescent cells as they entered old age

"We expect that in severely aging tissues, removing senescent cells will make a big difference, but that is not the case," Risbud said

But these mice need to be injected once a week from a relatively young age until they reach old age, which is much longer than the injection time of other susceptibility drugs

Dr.

In summary, the results of the study show that these drugs, which have been approved for clinical trials, can reduce disc degeneration that occurs with age

"This research paves the way for these studies to be first transformed into preclinical animal models and then into human clinical trials," said Dr.

DOI

10.