‘Final Frontier In Medicine’ Unlocked? ‘Pausing’ Cell Death Could Slow Aging, Cancer, Brain Degeneration
Research led by Dr. Carina Kern, LinkGevity
LONDON — What if the secret to staying young wasn’t another costly cream or trendy supplement, but tamping down a messy kind of cell death that has flown under the radar? A new study argues that necrosis — the uncontrolled “bursting” of damaged cells — may be a major upstream driver of everything from cancer and heart attacks to kidney disease and even aging itself.
Your body constantly kills off old, damaged, or infected cells in a highly controlled process called apoptosis. Everything is carefully orchestrated to clear away cellular debris without damaging surrounding tissue.
Unlike this orderly process, necrosis is essentially cellular chaos: ruptured membranes spill enzymes, DNA fragments, and inflammatory signals onto nearby tissue. These spilled contents act like alarm bells that attract immune cells and trigger more inflammation.