The cell rejuvenation atlas: leveraging network biology to identify master regulators of rejuvenation strategies.

Abstract

Current rejuvenation strategies, which range from calorie restriction to in vivo partial reprogramming, only improve a few specific cellular processes. In addition, the molecular mechanisms underlying these approaches are largely unknown, which hinders the design of more holistic cellular rejuvenation strategies. To address this issue, we developed SINGULAR (Single-cell RNA-seq Investigation of Rejuvenation Agents and Longevity), a cell rejuvenation atlas that provides a unified system biology analysis of diverse rejuvenation strategies across multiple organs at single-cell resolution. In particular, we leverage network biology approaches to characterize and compare the effects of each strategy at the level of intracellular signaling, cell-cell communication, and transcriptional regulation. As a result, we identified master regulators orchestrating the rejuvenation response and propose that targeting a combination of them leads to a more holistic improvement of age-dysregulated cellular processes. Thus, the interactive database accompanying SINGULAR is expected to facilitate the future design of synthetic rejuvenation interventions.