CellAge

CellAge catalogs 279 manually curated human genes associated with cellular senescence to support analysis of senescence mechanisms, aging, and age-related disease.

Key Features:

• Curated gene set: A catalog of 279 human genes manually curated and associated with cellular senescence.
• Gene overexpression analysis: Genes that promote cellular senescence are overexpressed with age in human tissues and are overrepresented in anti-longevity and tumor suppressor databases.
• Gene inhibition insights: Genes that inhibit senescence overlap with pro-longevity genes and oncogenes, indicating complex regulatory relationships.
• Evolutionary conservation: Evolutionary analysis shows strong conservation of senescence-associated genes among mammals but not in invertebrates.
• Network analyses: Protein–protein interaction and co-expression networks were constructed using the curated genes as seed nodes, revealing clusters enriched for cell cycle and immunological processes and identifying candidate regulators via network topology.
• Functional validation: Experimental siRNA validation showed that 19 of 26 candidate genes induced markers of senescence.

Scientific Applications:

• Mechanistic studies: Investigating molecular mechanisms and pathways underlying cellular senescence and its links to aging.
• Disease research: Exploring the roles of senescence-associated genes in age-related diseases such as cancer.
• Comparative genomics: Assessing evolutionary conservation of senescence genes across mammals and divergence from invertebrates.
• Network-based discovery: Identifying novel regulators of senescence through protein–protein interaction and co-expression network topology.
• Target prioritization: Prioritizing candidate genes for experimental validation and potential therapeutic intervention based on integrative analyses.

Methodology:

Analyses included manual curation of 279 human genes, gene expression analysis across human tissues, comparative overlap analysis with anti-longevity, pro-longevity, tumor suppressor and oncogene databases, evolutionary conservation analysis across species, and construction and network topology analysis of protein–protein interaction and co-expression networks seeded with the curated genes.