Nature子刊：复旦大学倪挺团队开发预测评估人类细胞衰老的通用工具——hUSI

Core Viewpoint - The article discusses the development of a human universal senescence index (hUSI) that accurately predicts cellular senescence across various conditions, addressing the challenges of identifying heterogeneous senescent cells [3][7][9]. Group 1: Background on Cellular Senescence - Cellular senescence (CS) is characterized by irreversible cell cycle arrest and is considered a key factor in age-related diseases [2]. - Senescent cells secrete pro-inflammatory proteins and other paracrine factors, which can stimulate immune responses and intercellular communication, leading to diverse effects in various tissues [2]. Group 2: Development of hUSI - The research team from Fudan University developed hUSI, a transcriptome-based index for assessing cellular senescence reliably across different cell types and conditions [3][7]. - The study compiled and standardized single-cell transcriptome sequencing data from 73 published studies, resulting in a comprehensive dataset of 770 senescent and non-senescent cell samples covering 34 cell types and 13 senescence types [3][9]. Group 3: Significance and Applications of hUSI - hUSI demonstrates a strong correlation with senescence phenotypes and shows robustness in predicting senescence states [9]. - The technology has identified potential senescence regulatory factors and mapped the accumulation of senescent cells in different cell types during COVID-19, as well as decoded the heterogeneous senescence states in melanoma tumors [9][10]. - The hUSI method has broad applications in aging research and clinical practice, with an open-source software package and user guide available for further use [10].