From the Editor ’s Desk...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumours activate telomerase early during hepatocarcinogenesis. Ningarhari et  al. have thoroughly studied the relevance of telomere length. They showed that TERT promoter mutations are frequent in HCC tumours arising in livers with short telomeres but not in those with long telomeres. In HCC tumours, long telomeres indicated very aggressive behaviour and were associated wit h the G3 transcriptomic subclass. Silencing TERT with antisense oligonucleotide was efficient in vitro, indicating a TERT oncogenic addiction, and was also effective against HCC in a xenograft mouse model, opening the door to a new therapeutic target that deserves to be explored in the clinical set ting.

Source: Journal of Hepatology - April 16, 2021 Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Patrizia Burra, Frank Tacke, Vlad Ratziu, Stefan Zeuzem, Bruno Sangro, Paolo Angeli Tags: From the Editor's Desk Source Type: research