{"id":241801,"date":"2026-07-29T21:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T02:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/blocking-a-mitochondrial-transporter-may-curb-inflammation-from-zombie-cells-without-killing-them"},"modified":"2026-07-29T21:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T02:21:11","slug":"blocking-a-mitochondrial-transporter-may-curb-inflammation-from-zombie-cells-without-killing-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/blocking-a-mitochondrial-transporter-may-curb-inflammation-from-zombie-cells-without-killing-them","title":{"rendered":"Blocking a mitochondrial transporter may curb inflammation from \u2018zombie\u2019 cells without killing them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/blocking-a-mitochondrial-transporter-may-curb-inflammation-from-zombie-cells-without-killing-them2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that helps aging cells drive the chronic inflammation linked to many age-related diseases. The findings reveal how dysfunctional mitochondria\u2014the cell\u2019s energy-producing structures\u2014work with the cell\u2019s epigenetic machinery to switch on inflammatory genes, opening the door to a new therapeutic approach for promoting healthier aging.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-026-10791-2\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a>, published in <i>Nature<\/i>, builds on years of research showing that senescent, or \u201czombie,\u201d cells accumulate with age. While these cells no longer divide, they remain metabolically active and release a cocktail of inflammatory molecules known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype, or SASP.<\/p>\n<p>This persistent inflammation is thought to contribute to frailty, cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegeneration and other disorders of aging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that helps aging cells drive the chronic inflammation linked to many age-related diseases. The findings reveal how dysfunctional mitochondria\u2014the cell\u2019s energy-producing structures\u2014work with the cell\u2019s epigenetic machinery to switch on inflammatory genes, opening the door to a new therapeutic approach for promoting healthier aging. The study, published in [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-life-extension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}