The FOXO4-p53 axis

The molecular handcuff that keeps zombie cells alive

Senescent cells are packed with damage that should trigger their own death, yet they survive. The explanation the founding paper offers is a specific protein-protein interaction: FOXO4, whose messenger RNA and protein rise as a cultured fibroblast becomes senescent, binds p53 and holds it in the nucleus instead of letting it act.

This unit unpacks that handcuff, the axis FOXO4-DRI was designed to break, and the experiments that proved it is real rather than merely plausible.