Meeting Report|Volume 17, Issue 12|pp 2877—2883

Cellular senescence meets infection: highlights from the 10th annual International Cell Senescence Association (ICSA) conference, Rome 2025

Stefanie Deinhardt-Emmer¹, François Trottein², Federico Armando^3,⁴, Rocío M. Tolosa^5,⁶, Andrea Rodríguez-Agustín^7,⁸, Victor Casanova^7,⁸, Núria Climent^7,^8,⁹, Pamela Martinez-Orellana¹⁰, Edoardo Scarpa^11,¹², Marisa Gariglio^13,¹⁴, Marco De Andrea^13,¹⁵

¹Institute of Medical Microbiology, Jena University Hospital, 07747 Jena, Germany
²Univ. Lille, CNRS, INSERM, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1019 - UMR 9017 - CIIL - Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille, F-59000 Lille, France
³Department of Veterinary Medicine, Pathology Unit, University of Parma, 43126 Parma, Italy
⁴Department of Pathology, University of Veterinary Medicine Foundation, 30559 Hannover, Germany
⁵Centro Singular de Investigación en Medicina Molecular y Enfermedades Crónicas (CIMUS), Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Spain
⁶Instituto de Investigación de Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Spain
⁷AIDS and HIV Infection Group, Fundació de Recerca Clínic Barcelona-Institut d’Investigacions Biomédiques August Pi i Sunyer (FRCB-IDIBAPS), 08036 Barcelona, Spain
⁸Universitat de Barcelona (UB), 08036 Barcelona, Spain
⁹Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), 28029 Madrid, Spain
¹⁰The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), 34149 Trieste, Italy
¹¹Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Milan, 20133 Milano, Italy
¹²National Institute of Molecular Genetic (INGM), 20122 Milano, Italy
¹³CAAD - Center for Translational Research on Autoimmune and Allergic Disease, University of Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
¹⁴Department of Translational Medicine, University of Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
¹⁵Department of Public Health and Pediatric Sciences, University of Turin, Medical School, 10126 Turin, Italy

Received: November 19, 2025Accepted: December 11, 2025Published: December 23, 2025

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206349

Copyright: © 2025 Deinhardt-Emmer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

At the 10^th Annual International Cell Senescence Association (ICSA) Conference, held in Rome (Italy) from September 17–19, 2025, “senescence and infection” emerged as a recurring highlight linking diverse sessions across virology, immunology, and aging research. Presentations addressed virus-induced senescence in influenza A virus (IAV), SARS-CoV-2, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), as well as bacterial infections such as Mycobacterium abscessus. Together, these studies have defined infection-driven senescence (IDS) as a critical biological process in both acute disease and long-term sequelae, connecting infectious pathology with mechanisms of aging and chronic inflammation.

Mechanistically, IDS integrates DNA damage responses, inflammatory signaling, and metabolic stress, with consistent activation of p16^INK4a, p21, and NF-κB pathways. Evidence across immune, epithelial, and neuronal systems have revealed that senescence contributes to impaired regeneration, persistent inflammation, and altered host–pathogen dynamics. Emerging therapeutic data suggest that senolytic or senomorphic strategies may alleviate infection-associated tissue damage.

Collectively, the conference highlighted IDS as an expanding frontier that bridges infection biology and aging research, emphasizing its potential relevance for prevention and therapy of chronic age-related disease.