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Scientists in Israel believe they may be able to delay the onset of age-related diseases, by flushing out the so-called “zombie cells” that clog up our immune system.

The zombie – more technically, senescent cells — have stopped dividing, which is what they’re supposed to do, but refuse to die.

In younger people they are naturally eliminated by the body’s immune system and account for just 1 percent of all cells.

But in older folks they hang around, representing 15% of cells in some body tissues, and causing chronic inflammation, impaired tissue repair and accelerated aging.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, central Israel, now believe they’ve found a way of identifying and removing these cells – by adapting a new generation of cancer treatments.

Their lightbulb moment was a realization that these zombie or senescent cells emit the same protein as cancer cells.

Cancer cells use a protein known as PD-L1 as a shield against the immune system. That knowledge has prompted oncologists to fight back with immunotherapy — stimulating the immune system to work harder or smarter to attack the cancer cells.

The team at Weizmann has been using that same treatment to hunt down zombie cells – from the PD-L1 they emit – and destroy them.

So far, they’ve been carrying out tests on mice using an antibody that has already been approved for treating cancer. The hope is that antibody could eventually be used on humans.

The antibody successfully activated T cells – the immune system’s warriors – in mice that were either old or suffering lung damage, leading to a reduction in the number of senescent cells.

“These findings could pave the way for innovative treatment of age-related diseases and other chronic disorders,” according to the researchers.

“Despite the great potential … there is currently no drug that can target these cells directly and efficiently.”

The study, led by Dr. Julia Majewska and Dr. Amit Agrawal at Prof. Valery Krizhanovsky’s lab at Weizmann’s Molecular Cell Biology Department, was published in the Nature Cell Biology journal.

“While the treatment we examined did not stop the aging clock, it did manage to get rid of senescent cells in mice and even reduce the release of small proteins that encourage inflammation in old age and in chronic diseases,” said Krizhanovsky.

“This discovery raises hopes that immunotherapy can be used in the future for treating not only cancer but also age-related diseases and chronic inflammation.”

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