Targeting Shelterin via TRF1 to Degrade Telomeres in Cancer Cells

Cancer cells depend on lengthening their telomeres, usually via telomerase activity. Telomeres are the caps of repeated DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes. A little length is lost with each cell division, and when short a cell either self-destructs or becomes senescent and ceases replication. Cancer cells can only replicate continually if telomeres are extended continually. Thus some research groups are looking into sabotage of telomerase or the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) processes as the basis for a truly universal cancer therapy. Others, as here, are investigating ways to interfere in mechanisms that protect telomeres from degradation, hopefully obtaining much the same result in the end. In the context of tumorigenesis, telomere shortening is associated with apparent antagonistic outcomes: on one side, it favors cancer initiation through mechanisms involving genome instability, while on the other side, it prevents cancer progression, due to the activation of the DNA damage response (DDR) checkpoint behaving as a cell-intrinsic proliferation barrier. Consequently, telomerase, which can compensate for replicative erosion by adding telomeric DNA repeats at the chromosomal DNA extremities, is crucial for cancer progression and is upregulated in nearly 90% of human cancers. In human cells, telomeric chromatin is organized into a terminal loop (t-loop), nucleosomes, the non-coding RNA TERRA, the protein complex shelterin, and a network of nuc...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs