Dr. Michael Lisanti is Chair of Translational Medicine at the University of Salford, UK, and has published numerous papers in the journal Aging. He has done important work on cellular senescence and on senolytic drugs. Here he discusses his forthcoming paper in Aging on how senescent cells may be a key to understanding COVID-19 infection, and on how that may relate to treatment.
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9 Comments
Dennis
That was one of your best and most timely interviews yet. A friend of mine attempted to use azithromycin a few years back as a senolytic, but when he did the math, he realized that the dose required would be very high. Still, the theory is what really counts here, and linking senescence with Covid 19 is a brilliant insight. Maybe azithromycin with rapamycin should be tried in one of the trials.
Some other thoughts. alan Green informed me that he’s thinking that hydroxychloroquine May act as a prophylactic taken once a week.
I texted Dr. Zalenko . He’s been making news as a physician treating the Hasidic Jewish community in Orange County NY. He identifies high risk patients and starts them very early with azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine. He says that out of 500 treated, no one has needed hospitalization. He also stated that he hasn’t seen any cardiac arrhythmia as a side effect.
Here’s an argument for maintaining social distancing early and longhttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/03/how-cities-flattened-curve-1918-spanish-flu-pandemic-coronavirus/
On the other hand, Trump is right in his assertion that recessions increase stress and suicides. It’s a tough problem.
Stay well
Paul Rivas MD
Thanks so much, Paul, Dr. Lisanti has done very interesting work, and I was proud I was able to interview him. Thanks for your insights, and you stay well too.
I am a physician and this is what I am recommending for COVID-19: https://www.thomashealthblog.com/?p=10115
Interesting advice Daniel. Thanks.
I wouldn’t give up yet on the combination of hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin based on a study that had so few participants that one person here or there changes the p value significantly. One cannot totally discard the French study and the large case report of Dr. Zalenko . It’s very possible that the combination is necessary and early intervention.
There is a trial going on in China giving 24 grams IV of vitamin C on a daily basis.No results yet reported. Has some value in sepsis.
We’ll agree to disagree about using metformin.
Hello Dennis
Great talk with Dr.Lasanti. Much is being done on finding much safer senolytics. Both azithromycin and rapamycin are antibiotics so probably remove both good and bad microbes. Over past several years findings are showing the microbes or microbiome is one of most important factors for over all health. So many studies have shown antibiotics are over used and leading to later life problems. Azithromycin is a broad spectrum antibiotic so probably doing harm to many of the good microbes. Below article mentions this. Also mentions fisten which is found in foods at low levels and has some senolytic properties. Would think safer but need a higher dose which could be problematic then. Still if not effecting the microbiota maybe overall safer and with more emphasis needs over the antibiotic seneoytics.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5aac3477f8370a964b2550c7/t/5d91091dbd027f6ecf806f8f/1569786142074/Senescent+Cells+%26+Senolytic+Therapy.pdf
Dennis,
Off-topic question. Have you seen anything good about what athletes should eat before a game that involves a lot of sprinting, like lacrosse? Most websites say “load up on carbs a few hours before the game”. Do you agree?
I don’t necessarily agree. If someone is training for hours a day, like an athlete would, then some carbs in the diet would be helpful, most likely. But just to play a game or do some sprinting, once, shouldn’t be necessary at all.
I made my other comment before I listened to the video. That was absolutely super interesting. It’s amazing how all these things tie together. Especially how cancer, senecent cells and corona tie together. If you talk to him you might mention the links on using parasite drugs to cure cancer. I looked up the mechanism and…it regulates protein in tubulin. Amazing. On a lark I looked up cancer rates in Thailand where anti-parasite drugs are over the counter and I read, somewhere, they are taken more often and their cancer rate is lower.
To just brain storm an odd idea I wonder if there is some sort of relation to parasites and aging???? The links I left on washing the blood…could it be that these build up in the blood and by washing them the body then is able to repair itself??? This may sound silly but I’m not convinced that we actually know about all parasites. Doctors in the US mostly ignore them unless it’s really obvious. It’s as if they don’t exist.
There’s been an avalanche of interesting work done on aging. I think we may be getting much closer to an understanding of it all.
Thanks for getting him to do this interview. It was very informative. I was very impressed that he was able to recognize all these tie ins to various areas. I didn’t know about these.
Sam J.
It seems so. They carry pathogens throughout the body which unlike previously thought, can have a heavy toll as your immune system goes down, and some are small enough to infect cells and brain tissues, which maybe the root of the disease I have that people with long term pathosis after tick bite, develop. The micro
worm types are also an issue, as to toxo plasmosis gondi. A key factor is, a healthy immune system keeps tends to keep them suppressed, but once established they excrete and do stuff which lowers immune responses.