This 2024 narrative review examines how cellular senescence contributes to heterotopic ossification (HO) in both fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) and acquired forms, and evaluates senotherapeutic drugs — senolytics and senomodulators — as a potential new treatment strategy for preventing ectopic bone formation.
When managing high-risk patients before major hip surgery or after spinal cord injury — settings where acquired HO rates reach 11–19% — the emerging senotherapeutic framework suggests that perioperative or post-injury use of repurposed agents like ruxolitinib or dasatinib/quercetin may one day offer a targeted prevention strategy beyond current NSAIDs and radiation; this is preclinical for now, but understanding the SASP-BMP signaling axis helps explain why some patients ossify and others do not.
This 2024 narrative review examines how cellular senescence contributes to heterotopic ossification (HO) in both fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) and acquired forms, and evaluates senotherapeutic drugs — senolytics and senomodulators — as a potential new treatment strategy for preventing ectopic bone formation.
When managing high-risk patients before major hip surgery or after spinal cord injury — settings where acquired HO rates reach 11–19% — the emerging senotherapeutic framework suggests that perioperative or post-injury use of repurposed agents like ruxolitinib or dasatinib/quercetin may one day offer a targeted prevention strategy beyond current NSAIDs and radiation; this is preclinical for now, but understanding the SASP-BMP signaling axis helps explain why some patients ossify and others do not.