Lin and Artandi wondered whether they could
use telomerase expression as a marker to identify the subset of cells responsible for regenerating the liver during normal turnover.
Just as youthful stem cells
use telomerase to offset telomere length loss, cancer cells employ telomerase to maintain their aberrant and destructive growth.
An estimated 90 percent of all malignant tumors
use telomerase to achieve immortality, and various proposed cancer therapies focus on turning down the production of telomerase in tumors.
Asterias maintains an extensive global intellectual property portfolio including broad issued claims to fundamental platform technologies including, but not limited to, scalable growth of pluripotent stem cells, methods of production and compositions of matter for several hESC - derived therapeutic cell types, and cellular immunotherapy
using the telomerase antigen.
Not exact matches
The new research, which studied the immortalization process
using genome - engineered cells in culture and also tracked skin cells as they progressed from a mole into a malignant melanoma, suggests that
telomerase plays a more complex role in cancer.
This widespread lack of the need for
telomerase is
used by evolution as a key component of our defense against cancer, because having a limit to the size and renewal of telomeres prevents our cells from replicating themselves indefinitely — the crucial hallmark of cancer.
«Obviously, this information can be
used in our efforts to identify drug therapies that kill cancer cells by targeting
telomerase activity.»
«
Telomerase is a unique protein - RNA complex where the protein subunit
uses its RNA component as a template to add identical fragments of DNA to the end of chromosomes,» said Emmanuel Skordalakes, Ph.D., associate professor in the Gene Expression and Regulation program of Wistar's NCI - designated Cancer Center.
We
used liposomes — which are almost like tiny soap bubbles in the bloodstream — to deliver a gene that knocks the
telomerase RNA down.
The researchers
used mice in which the
telomerase gene was eliminated; specifically in bone marrow cells.
Rao's team
used various approaches, including assays of
telomerase activity, measurement of cell growth, and gene expression profiling of TSY - 1 treated cells, to determine how it acts.
«You could imagine developing drugs that protect these
telomerase - expressing cells, or ways to
use cell therapy approaches to renew livers,» said Artandi.
In the case of
telomerase activity, the tissues were divided into central, intermediate and peripheral areas by the
use of trephines.
Greider, Blackburn and Szostak discovered
telomerase, the enzyme that copies the ends of chromosomes
using a special RNA template.
Using this assay, her group has identified a protein complex that inhibits telomere shortening while it promotes
telomerase action.
While most chemotherapy drugs kill all rapidly dividing cells in the body, causing serious side effects which limit their
use, a drug that inhibits
telomerase would only affect those cells that are immortal and malignant.
Indeed, a non-negligible proportion of cancer cells
use recombination instead of
telomerase to maintain telomere length.
The next edition of Journal Club will be on 20th March at 13:00 EST / 18: 00 UK where we will be discussing a new discovery about
telomerase, and a potential way we might
use it to improve tissue regeneration in humans.
One reason why we know little about this process of
telomerase silencing is because specific
telomerase regulation naturally occurs only in human cells but not in mouse cells, a widely
used model organism where
telomerase is active in all cell types.
The enzyme
telomerase maintains the length of telomeres, the protective ends on chromosomes, and most cancer cells
use large amounts of the enzyme to ensure their immortality.
This work, published in «Blood», was carried out by the CNIO Telomeres and
Telomerase Group The treatment is based on the transport of the telomerase gene to the bone marrow cells using gene therapy, a completely new strategy in the treatment of aplast
Telomerase Group The treatment is based on the transport of the
telomerase gene to the bone marrow cells using gene therapy, a completely new strategy in the treatment of aplast
telomerase gene to the bone marrow cells
using gene therapy, a completely new strategy in the treatment of aplastic anaemia
Through such evolutionary processes, a drug that targets
telomerase could seem effective at first, only to be defeated by the cancer cell line if it can (for instance) more effectively break the drug down, or prevent the drug from entering its cells, or put out the biological equivalents of the «chaff» and flares that are
used by fighter jets to ward off the targeting systems of hostile missiles.
Using PET scanning, they saw that KKM resulted in 19 genes being up - regulated and 49 genes being down - regulated, resulting in the production of fewer inflammatory mediators, and increased
telomerase activity by almost 50 %.
Because according to her you can't
use something like
telomerase to increase the length of your telomeres without significantly increasing your risk of cancer.