This open access review looks over present opinions on whether or not alternative splicing is important in aging, and in the creation and harmful activities of senescent cells in particular. Alternative splicing refers to the fact that a single gene can code for different proteins. Changes in the ratio of production for these alternative proteins for any specific gene might be either a form of disarray caused by molecular damage or a reaction to rising levels of cell and tissue damage - essentially another form of genetic regulation that, like epigenetic decorations to DNA, changes with age.

The summary in this paper is that the picture is very complicated and poorly understood at present, as is the case for much of the detail level of cellular metabolism and the ways in which it changes over the course of aging. Fortunately we don't need a full understanding in order to produce significant benefits by selectively destroying the lingering senescent cells found in old tissues; this is the great advantage of therapeutic approaches that target the known root causes of aging. A full accounting of the way in which these causes contribute to aging, in detail, over time, is unnecessary for first generation therapies, making this a much faster and cheaper road to treating aging as a medical condition.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.12646