Table 2.

Presence of the cellular senescence phenotype offers therapeutic opportunities.

Characteristic	Synthetic lethal targeting of senescent cells
Cell morphology
SA-β-gal positive
Enlarged cell with prominent nuclei and cytoplasmic granularity
Metabolic alterations
Hypermetabolic	Glucose transport inhibitors phloretin, cytochalasin B, 2-deoxy-d-glucose [36]
Glycolysis	AMPK inhibitor compound C [36]/AMPK activator and mTOR inhibitor metformin [50], [51]
High protein turnover	Lysosomal V-ATPase inhibitors bafilomycin A1 and concanamycin A [36]
Secretory phenotype
Pro-inflammatory cytokines	Tumor microenvironment cancer-based immunotherapy [52]
Growth factors	Growth factor and growth factor receptor inhibitors (e.g. VEGF, IGF-1 inhibitors) [53]

AMPK, adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase; ATPase, adenosine triphosphatase; IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor 1; mTOR, mammalian target of rapamycin; SA-β-gal, senescence-associated β-galactosidas; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor.