Telomere and Telomerase Therapeutics in Cancer.
Author: Xu Y1, Goldkorn A2
Affiliation:
1Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine and Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA. yuchengx@usc.edu.
2Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine and Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA. agoldkor@med.usc.edu.
Conference/Journal: Genes (Basel).
Date published: 2016 May 26
Other:
Volume ID: 7 , Issue ID: 6 , Word Count: 169
Telomerase is a reverse transcriptase capable of utilizing an integrated RNA component as a template to add protective tandem telomeric single strand DNA repeats, TTAGGG, to the ends of chromosomes. Telomere dysfunction and telomerase reactivation are observed in approximately 90% of human cancers; hence, telomerase activation plays a unique role as a nearly universal step on the path to malignancy. In the past two decades, multiple telomerase targeting therapeutic strategies have been pursued, including direct telomerase inhibition, telomerase interference, hTERT or hTERC promoter driven therapy, telomere-based approaches, and telomerase vaccines. Many of these strategies have entered clinical development, and some have now advanced to phase III clinical trials. In the coming years, one or more of these new telomerase-targeting drugs may be expected to enter the pharmacopeia of standard care. Here, we briefly review the molecular functions of telomerase in cancer and provide an update about the preclinical and clinical development of telomerase targeting therapeutics.
KEYWORDS: targeted therapy; telomerase; telomeres
PMID: 27240403 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] Free full text
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