Classifying and Staging Organismal Senescence and Age-Related Diseases
Project Team: Barry L Bentley, Stuart RG Calimport, Emma Short
Publications
To help aging populations, classify organismal senescence
Abstract
Globally, citizens exist for sustained periods in states of aging-related disease and multimorbidity. Given the urgent and unmet clinical, health care, workforce, and economic needs of aging populations, we need interventions and programs that regenerate tissues and organs and prevent and reverse aging-related damage, disease, and frailty. In response to these challenges, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for a comprehensive public-health response within an international legal framework based on human rights law. Yet for a clinical trial to be conducted, a disease to be diagnosed, intervention prescribed, and treatment administered, a corresponding disease classification code is needed, adopted nationally from the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Such classifications and staging are fundamental for health care governance among governments and intergovernmental bodies. We describe a systematic and comprehensive approach to the classification and staging of organismal senescence and aging-related diseases at the organ and tissue levels in order to guide policy and practice and enable appropriate interventions and clinical guidance, systems, resources, and infrastructure.
Calimport SRG, Bentley BL, Stewart CE, Pawelec G, Scuteri A, Vinciguerra M, Slack C, Chen D, Harries LW, Marchant G, Fleming GA, Conboy M, Antebi A, Small GW, Gil J, Lakatta EG, Richardson A, Rosen C, Nikolich K, Wyss-Coray T, Steinman L, Montine T, de Magalhães JP, Campisi J, Church G (2019) To help aging populations, classify organismal senescence. Science, 366(6465), pp. 576-578. doi:10.1126/science.aay7319 (pdf)
Eid. (2020) The inherent challenges of classifying senescence—Response. Science, 368(6491), pp. 595-596. doi:10.1126/science.abb4073 (pdf)
Aging classified as a cause of disease in ICD-11
Calimport SRG & Bentley BL (2019) Aging classified as a cause of disease in ICD-11. Rejuvenation Research, 22(4), pp. 281. doi:10.1089/rej.2019.2242 (pdf)