Senolytics (Dasatinib+Quercetin, Fisetin)
Evidence grade 1 of 5, Untested. Read how the Atlas grades evidence.
Only small, short pilot and Phase 1/2 trials of D+Q and fisetin exist in humans (tens of participants), efficacy signals are mixed (a randomized fisetin trial in osteoarthritis found no benefit), and no trial has tested lifespan or mortality outcomes, placing human evidence at an early/theoretical stage despite strong mouse data.
Reference only. Not medical advice.
Senolytics are compounds that selectively induce death in senescent cells, which are cells that have stopped dividing but remain metabolically active and secrete inflammatory factors (the senescence-associated secretory phenotype, or SASP) that are thought to contribute to tissue dysfunction and chronic disease with age. The two most studied agents are the combination of dasatinib (a cancer drug) plus quercetin (a plant flavonoid), commonly abbreviated D+Q, and fisetin, another plant flavonoid, taken alone. In mice, senolytic treatment has extended healthspan and, in some studies, median lifespan, and has improved markers of frailty, physical function, and specific pathologies including osteoporosis-like bone loss and pulmonary fibrosis. Human evidence is at an early, preliminary stage. The first human trial of D+Q, a small open-label pilot in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, reported improved physical function measures. A separate small pilot study in people with diabetic kidney disease found that a short 3-day course of D+Q measurably reduced senescent cell markers in tissue and blood, providing proof of concept that senolytics can clear senescent cells in humans as they do in mice. Larger, more rigorous trials have had mixed results: a randomized trial of fisetin for knee osteoarthritis found no significant benefit for pain, function, or cartilage health, though safety was acceptable, while other work has reported reductions in senescence and inflammatory markers with fisetin without yet establishing meaningful clinical benefit in humans at scale. No trial has evaluated senolytics for lifespan extension or all-cause mortality in humans, and there is no FDA approval for any senolytic indication. Current status is that senolytics remain investigational, being studied for specific age-related conditions such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, pulmonary fibrosis, and frailty, rather than as a general anti-aging treatment. A notable caveat is that dasatinib is a chemotherapy agent with a meaningful side-effect profile (myelosuppression, fluid retention, bleeding risk) even at the intermittent low doses used in senolytic protocols, and self-administration of prescription dasatinib for longevity purposes outside clinical trial or medical supervision carries real risk. Fisetin has a better general safety profile as a supplement-grade flavonoid but has not shown consistent clinical efficacy in the trials completed so far.
Senolytics are compounds that selectively induce death in senescent cells, which are cells that have stopped dividing but remain metabolically active and secrete inflammatory factors (the.
Safety in detail
Dasatinib carries chemotherapy-related risks including bone marrow suppression, fluid retention, and bleeding even at intermittent senolytic doses; unsupervised self-administration of prescription senolytics for longevity purposes is not recommended.
What people get wrong
Nothing recorded here yet. There is almost certainly something people get wrong about this one, and the blank space means we have not written it down, not that the record is clean.
Who profits, and who pushes back
Nobody is named here yet, because we have not done that work on this entry. Read that as unfinished. Somebody almost certainly sells this, and somebody almost certainly disputes it. Assume both until we have checked.
How we got here
The biological premise dates to Leonard Hayflick's 1961 discovery that normal human cells have a finite replicative capacity (the Hayflick limit) and enter a non-dividing state called senescence; decades later, work in the 2000s and 2010s, including studies from Jan van Deursen and Judith Campisi's laboratories, showed that genetically clearing senescent cells in mice improved healthspan and delayed age-related dysfunction. The Kirkland laboratory at the Mayo Clinic, working with these findings, identified dasatinib plus quercetin as the first pharmacological senolytic combination able to selectively kill senescent cells around 2015, coining the term senolytic. The first published human clinical trial, a small 2019 open-label pilot in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, moved the concept from mouse models into early human testing, and the biotechnology company Unity Biotechnology, founded in 2011, was built around the broader senescent-cell-clearance hypothesis.
What this entry does not yet cover
What follows is unfinished work on our side, not a finding about Senolytics (Dasatinib+Quercetin, Fisetin). A short entry is not a safe entry.
- Timeline. We have not built the dated record of research and regulatory events.
- Cost and market. We have not documented what it sells for or who sells it.
- Supply chain. We have not mapped where it is made.
- Who uses it. We have not documented the user groups.
- What could change. No forward-looking summary yet.
- How it compares. We have not set it against the alternatives.
- Children and teenagers. We have not checked what is known about younger people.
- What can go wrong. We have not written the risk line for this one. Read the safety section below rather than treating its absence as reassurance.
- Where we land. We have not taken a position on this yet.
- What people take it for. We have not catalogued the claims made for it.