Antibiotics and Cellular Senescence: An Unexplored Territory

Antibiotics are certainly the most important agents in the fight against human and animal bacterial infections. Widespread use of antibiotics has a positive impact on the treatment of infectious diseases but may be accompanied by serious side effects. Clinical aspects of these side effects are well understood, but nonspecific molecular targets are not fully recognized. It is generally known that many antibiotics can damage mitochondria, intracellular organelles responsible for aerobic metabolism as well as regulating a number of important processes, including cellular redox balance and inflammatory responses. Mitochondrial dysfunction commonly leads to the development of oxidative stress and inflammation, which are known stimuli of cellular senescence. On the other hand, the same stimuli could induce death of senescent cells. Thus, mitotoxic antibiotics could influence both the cellular senescence process and elimination of senescent cells. The effect of antitumor antibiotics on the induction of cell aging has been studied in detail, but the effect of antibacterial antibiotics on this process is still essentially unknown. This review aims to draw attention of the researchers to the possibility of accelerated cellular aging induced by common antibacterial antibiotics and to discuss potential mechanisms of this process.