Wasnt the base theory, that some viruses damage cells, that then do not become cancerous, but produce useless protein crap, that spills everywhere? Basically slow death, by spam every cellular division?
Are you talking about cellular senescence? Those cells don’t divide. They produce inflammatory proteins, aka senescence-associated secretary phenotype. More senescent cells in ageing, but no direct link AFAIK.
Yes, yes, that was it. Garbage slowly clogging the maintenance functions, building up other toxic substances, like plastic bags clogging a chemical plant over time..
And it does not have to be directly.. it just has to tilt the chemical environment slowly, but steadily towards something bad downstream.
