Accumulating DNA damage and insufficient DNA repair in senescent cells underlie persistent DNA damage signaling

Senescent cells are a major cause of organismal aging and a key target for anti-aging therapies. Persistent DNA damage signaling is a primary driver of the induction and maintenance of cellular senescence. However, many DNA damaging stimuli that induce senescence, such as irradiation or transient exposure to genotoxic drugs, are transient. The mechanisms underlying persistent damage signaling in senescent cells, and why senescent cells fail to repair damaged DNA, remain unknown. Here, we were able to assess the mechanisms underlying persistence of DNA damage and senescence maintenance by designing a precisely controllable senescence system that does not require potent stressors to induce senescence. We demonstrate that sustained mTORC1 signaling in senescent cells causes gradually accumulating DNA damage and an inflammatory response that maintains cell-cycle arrest. Markedly, activation of E2F transcription, which promotes expression of DNA repair proteins, can reverse accumulated DNA damage. Thus, persistent DNA damage signaling arises in senescent cells by uncoupling of mTORC1 and E2F signaling, whereby prolonged mTORC1 activity causes gradually increasing DNA damage that cannot be sufficiently repaired without induction of protective E2F target genes. Transcriptomics data from MCF-10A cells arrested expressing either inducible mVenus, mVenus-p21 or mVenus-p16. Mvenus-p16 expressing cells were treated with DMSO or Torin2. Four conditions with three biological replicates for a total of 12 samples