What is Fisetin?

Recently fisetin has been studied by researchers at the Mayo Clinic and The Scripps Research Institute and found that it may extend lives by roughly 10%, reporting no adverse side effects in mice and human tissue studies, as published in EbioMedicine.

Damaged senescent cells are toxic to the body and accumulate with age, fisetin is a natural senolytic product the researchers suggest that they were able to show can selectively and dial back their bad secretions or inflammatory proteins and/or effectively kill senescent cells.

Mice given fisetin reached extensions in both lifespans and healthspans of over 10%. Healthspans are the period of life wherein they are healthy and living, not just living. At the doses given which were high, but not unusual due to low bioavailability of flavonoids, the question was if lower doses or more infrequent dose would yield results. Theoretically the advantage of using these drugs is to clear damaged cells, results suggest there is still benefits even in using them intermittently.

Fisetin was used on human fat tissue in lab testing to see how it would interact with human cells and not just mice cells. Senescent cells were able to be decreased in human fat tissue, researchers suggest that it is likely they will work in humans, however amounts of fisetin in fruits and vegetables isn’t enough to yield these benefits, additional studies are required to work out human dosage.

Fisetin can improve physical function in old age according to a study published in Nature Medicine. Another published in Aging Cell found senescent cells are linked with Alzheimer’s disease in a groundbreaking study showing the preventative strategy in protecting the brain from dementia by feeding mice fisetin; mice that were genetically programmed to develop Alzheimer’s were protected by the fisetin supplemented water.

Fisetin was identified about 10 years ago and can be found within numerous fruits and vegetables including strawberries, mangoes, apples, kiwi, grapes, peaches, persimmons, tomatoes, onions, and cucumber with skin; however the best source is considered to be strawberries. The compound is being investigated for anti-cancer, anti-aging, anti-diabetes, anti-inflammatory properties as well as promise to preserve brain health.

Currently the Mayo Clinic is undergoing clinical trials on fisetin, meaning that fisetin could be available to human to treat senescent cells within the next couple of years. Research is being conducted to create a supplement that would make it easier to obtain amounts of benefit to boost health as it is not the easiest plant compound to consume. It may make it easier to enhance brain health, help stroke patients recover better and faster, protect nerve cells from age related damage, and be of benefit to diabetes and cancer patients.