A transitional senescence program drives inflammatory monocyte state expansion in aging humans

Dysfunctional monocyte states contribute to age-related pathologies and systemic inflammation. However, the gene regulatory networks governing the transition to these states remain unknown. Here we used bulk and single-cell multidimensional integrative profiling to reveal previously uncharacterized monocyte state transitions during human aging. We show that a transient senescent-like population arising from classical CD14 ⁺⁺ CD16 ^- monocytes drives the accumulation of an inflammatory monocyte state in aging humans. This senescence-associated transition is orchestrated by the master senescence regulator AP-1, which acts on a pre-established chromatin landscape to rewire the monocyte transcription factor (TF) network and activate both senescence- and age-associated inflammatory transcriptional programs. Through integration with clinical transcriptomic datasets, we demonstrate that senescent-like and aged monocytes are transcriptionally primed toward sepsis-associated states. Overall, our study provides the core gene-regulatory principles underlying a senescent-like transitional state in monocytes and identifies AP-1 as an attractive target to modulate systemic inflammation in age and disease.