Cellular Senescence and Periodontitis: Mechanisms and Therapeutics

Simple Summary Oral health is increasingly recognized as an important part of overall health. Tooth loss is a contributor to overall musculoskeletal frailty and is closely associated with increased morbidity in the elderly population. Limited intervention exists to alleviate tooth loss associated with periodontitis, other than antibiotics. Mounting evidence suggests that targeting cellular senescence could slow down the fundamental aging process, and thus alleviate a wide range of age-related tissue dysfunctions, likely including tooth loss. Therefore, we feel it might be valuable to review the current understanding of the role and potential mechanisms of senescent cells in oral health with aging. Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease which increases in prevalence and severity in the older population. Aging is a leading risk factor for periodontitis, which exacerbates alveolar bone loss and results in tooth loss in the elderly. However, the mechanism by which aging affects periodontitis is not well understood. There is considerable evidence to suggest that targeting cellular senescence could slow down the fundamental aging process, and thus alleviate a series of age-related pathological conditions, likely including alveolar bone loss. Recently, it has been discovered that the senescent cells accumulate in the alveolar bone and promote a senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Senescent cells interacting with bacteria, together with secreted SASP components altering the local microenvironment and inducing paracrine effects in neighboring cells, exacerbate the chronic inflammation in periodontal tissue and lead to more alveolar bone loss. This review will probe into mechanisms underlying excessive alveolar bone loss in periodontitis with aging and discuss potential therapeutics for the treatment of alveolar bone loss targeting cellular senescence and the SASP. Inspecting the relationship between cellular senescence and periodontitis will lead to new avenues of research in this field and contribute to developing potential translatable clinical interventions to mitigate or even reverse the harmful effects of aging on oral health.