Chlorine dioxide could extend life and treat diseases by clearing senescent cells and aiding tissue regeneration.

According to Schrödinger, life resists the entropy increase dictated by the second law of thermodynamics by absorbing energy to maintain or decrease its entropy, a concept he referred to as negative entropy. However, negative entropy is a broad concept and doesn’t concretely describe the entire life process. Assuming that an organism is entirely composed of cells, entropy measures the organism’s orderliness. An increase in entropy represents a transition from order to disorder within the organism, so the overall order of cells reflects the organism’s orderliness. When dysfunctional cells emerge, such as senescent or cancerous cells, the organism’s order is disrupted, decreasing its orderliness. Let’s assume these poorly performing cells, or those causing the loss of order, are collectively known as aging cells (including all types of dysfunctional and malignantly proliferating cells, with their main side effects being spatial occupation and disruption of order). The proportion of aging cells to the total cell count reflects the degree of disorder within the organism. This ratio is intuitive, making it a convenient measure of entropy increase.

We can create a model of life: the human body has approximately 50×1012 cells. When the proportion of dysfunctional aging cells (senescent cells) reaches a certain level, the person’s systemic functions will fail, leading to death. In this model, a local excess of dysfunctional cells beyond a threshold equates to the onset of a disease. The body’s natural functions, especially the immune system, work to slow down or reduce the accumulation of aging cells

Cells accumulate damage over time, leading to aging. The immune system’s ability to clear aging cells diminishes with age, similar to its capacity to clear cancer cells. This reflects the impact of aging on the immune system’s clearance of aging cells. Rather than reaching a fixed point of senescence, cells continue to accumulate damage, resulting in an increasing number of senescent cells over time.

Treating diseases involves addressing dysfunctional cells. In our model, we consider inactive or deteriorating cells as senescent cells in humans. Repairing these damaged cells completely is challenging, so our focus is on clearing them. After removing damaged cells, the body relies on remaining stem cells for regeneration. While our model does not account for the process of stem cell regeneration, we assume it occurs naturally after clearing senescent cells. If stem cell regeneration occurs without limitations, it can naturally lead to the regeneration of younger, healthier cells. Therefore, once senescent cells are cleared, the natural regenerative process takes over.

Let’s assume a chronic disease occurs, such as diabetes, cancer, or Alzheimer’s disease, where the patient’s senescent cell accumulation grows exponentially. Without treatment, the patient is likely to die earlier than a healthy individual. If we apply an effective treatment, the result is reflected in the backward shift of the age cell accumulation curve.

According to our model, an important theoretical implication can be drawn: clearing senescent cells can potentially extend lifespan or treat diseases.

I found some relevant articles discussing the impact of clearing senescent cells on longevity:

1. “Targeting senescent cells for a healthier longevity: the roadmap for an era of global aging” – This article suggests that selective elimination of senescent cells through genetic approaches and pharmacological agents (senolysis) can significantly extend median lifespan and effectively attenuate age-associated pathologies1.
2. “Does cellular senescence hold secrets for healthier aging?” – In mouse models, clearing senescent lung cells was shown to reduce inflammation and extend health span2.
3. “Cellular senescence and senolytics: the path to the clinic” – Normally, senescent cells are cleared within days to weeks after they develop by natural killer cells and other immune cell types3.

These studies not only provide evidence for the potential positive impact of clearing senescent cells on longevity but also support the validity of my model.

The Life Model and Chlorine Dioxide

In our pursuit of treating diseases, we have positioned extending survival as our ultimate goal. Within this framework, the preferred method of treatment for various diseases involves eliminating damaged cells and bolstering the immune system to enhance its clearing capability. For chronic diseases that lack effective treatments, our suboptimal strategy is to prevent further deterioration or minimize damage to other healthy cells.

ROS are known not only for their ability to clear damaged cells but also for their potential to boost immunity. Could chlorine dioxide have a similar effect? If we compare the human body to a complex machine, a disease is like a faulty component. Common sense dictates that a skilled mechanic would remove the damaged part and replace it. In this analogy, removing the bad part equates to clearing damaged cells, and the machine’s automatic replacement with new parts mirrors our body’s ability to regenerate healthy cells, provided the right conditions.

In our life model, we’ve developed a logical framework to explore the potential of chlorine dioxide’s oxidative properties in clearing damaged cells and to investigate if it could also promote tissue regeneration by simulating ROS.