A Review of Telomerase as a Therapeutic Target

Telomerase provides the primary mechanism by which cells lengthen their telomeres. In our species only stem cells and cancer cells do this, while in mice more types of cell use more telomerase. Telomere length determines the limit to cell divisions, a little of the length being lost each time a cell divides. Cells that can lengthen their telomeres can continue dividing indefinitely, and that is how stem cells can continually deliver a useful supply of daughter cells to support surrounding tissues. It is also how cancer grows. Cancer and regeneration are the two sides of the same coin of growth and regeneration, one controlled, the other uncontrolled. Thus, broadly speaking, there are two things that can be done with telomerase in medicine, and both projects, while in the comparatively early stages, have a fair number of research groups involved. Firstly, blocking the ability of telomerase to lengthen telomeres is the larger part of the basis for a universal cancer therapy. Some 90% of cancers abuse telomerase in order to grow and spread. If that can be shut down, then the cancer will be halted in its tracks - any cancer. The challenge of cancer research is not that it is hard and expensive, but rather that most approaches to treating cancer are highly specific to just a few types out of the hundreds of forms of cancerous tissue. This is a poor strategy. Meaningful progress towards defeating cancer will require the development of therapies that can instead be applied to...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs