Recent advancements in the structural biology of human telomerase and their implications for improved design of cancer therapeutics.

ABSTRACT: Telomerase is a specialized reverse transcriptase that synthesizes telomeric repeats at the ends of linear chromosomes. Telomerase is transiently expressed in germ and stem cells, but nearly all somatic cells silence it after differentiating. However, the vast majority of cancer cells reactivate and constitutively express telomerase to maintain replicative immortality. Because of this, telomerase has remained a promising broad-spectrum chemotherapeutic target for over 30 years. However, various challenges associated with obtaining high-resolution structural data for telomerase have limited the development of rationally designed structure-based therapeutics. Various techniques and model systems have been utilized to advance our understanding of the structural biology of telomerase. In parti

SUBMITTER: Welfer GA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9984990 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature