The effect of dihydroquercetin therapy on clinical status and the burden of senescent cells in elderly patients with chronic heart failure: rationale and study design

RELEVANCE. Chronic heart failure (CHF) is an age-related disease affecting approximately 63 million people worldwide. In Russia, the prevalence of CHF has increased from 6.1 % to 8.2 % over the past 20 years, with most experts attributing this growth to population aging. Despite recent improvements in treatment strategies and, consequently, patient survival, mortality and hospitalization rates for CHF remain high, particularly among elderly and very elderly patients. Therefore, the search for new approaches to primary and secondary prevention and treatment of CHF remains a pressing issue in medical science. Persistent systemic inflammation is a key component of the pathogenesis of age-related diseases, including CHF. Numerous studies have demonstrated elevated levels of inflammatory biomarkers in CHF patients. One of the mechanisms sustaining chronic inflammation is the accumulation of senescent cells, which secrete a complex of biologically active factors known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). A promising approach to CHF treatment may be the use of senolytic therapy, which selectively eliminates senescent cells and reduces inflammation. The senolytic agent dihydroquercetin has demonstrated its effects in experimental studies, and its safety has been confirmed in clinical trials for other indications. These data justified the choice of dihydroquercetin for the present study, which aims to assess the effect of dihydroquercetin therapy on biomarkers of senescent cell accumulation and the clinical status of elderly patients with CHF.