Overview of molecular signatures of senescence and associated resources: pros and cons

Abstract

The accurate detection of cellular senescence is of paramount importance given its involvement in aging and age-related pathologies. Over the years, a variety of markers and methodologies have been developed to address this issue. Initially, wet-lab assays, dealing with single morphological traits and molecular markers, were implemented, though exhibiting technical challenges and ineffectiveness in identifying the inherently complex senescence phenotype. Recent developments led to the adoption of combinatorial approaches in the form of multimarker guideline algorithms, effectively bypassing these obstacles. Moreover, technological advances have facilitated the emergence of molecular signatures that exploit the large amount of data generated in the last decades to increase our awareness of this phenomenon and its consequences. Due to the overwhelming expansion of these signatures, we performed an analysis of their advantages and disadvantages, and here, we discuss future improvements.