Therapeutic inhibition of telomeric DNA damage response rescues hematopoietic dysfunction driven by telomere shortening and aging

Telomeres progressively shorten and accumulate damage with aging, and this contributes to cellular senescence and hematopoietic dysfunction. We previously showed that telomere dysfunction induces synthesis of telomeric noncoding RNAs required for activation of the telomeric DNA damage response (tDDR), a driver of senescence and inflammation. However, whether the tDDR causally impairs hematopoiesis remained unclear. Here we show in telomerase-deficient Terc−/− mice, which recapitulate telomere-driven hematopoietic dysfunction and aging, that targeting telomeric noncoding RNAs with telomeric antisense oligonucleotides (tASO) suppresses tDDR in hematopoietic organs, reduces senescence and inflammation, alleviates hematopoietic dysfunction, and enhances hematopoietic stem cell fitness and repopulating potential in vivo. Similar observations were recapitulated in aged wild-type mice, and ex vivo treatment with tASO improved the function of human hematopoietic stem cells from aged donors. Taken together, our results identify tDDR as a pathogenic driver of hematopoietic decline and support tASO-mediated tDDR inhibition as a potential therapeutic strategy for telomere biology disorders and age-associated hematopoietic aging. Oppezzo and colleagues report that therapeutically blocking telomeric DNA damage signaling reduces senescence and inflammation and restores hematopoietic function in telomerase-deficient and physiologically aged mice.