Mouse study links aging’s cleanup failure to zombie cells

The Nature Aging paper examines chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), a pathway that sends selected proteins to lysosomes for degradation. In mice, blocking CMA in macrophages increased senescent-cell accumulation and delayed wound healing. A small-molecule CMA activator reduced senescent-cell burden across multiple tissues and eased disease severity in a pulmonary-fibrosis model. The findings are preclinical and do not establish safety or effectiveness in humans.