PARP inhibitors plus senolytics: a double hit on cancer

A new approach to synthetic lethality aims to overcome resistance to PARP inhibitors by pairing them with senolytic agents, marking one of the first moves beyond DNA damage repair combinations.

PARP inhibitors hinder DNA damage repair (DDR) in cancers, and produce a synthetic lethal interaction that enhances cancer killing when paired with mutations or other agents that also inhibit DDR. For example, PARP inhibitors have proven effective in patients with mutations in DDR pathway proteins BRCA1 and BRCA2...