Telomerase News and Research

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New gene-based blood tests can reliably detect previously unidentifiable forms of skin cancer

Genetic testing of tumor and blood fluid samples from people with and without one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer has shown that two new blood tests can reliably detect previously unidentifiable forms of the disease.

3 Apr 2017

New compounds with potent anticancer activity could lessen side effects of oncological treatments

The Universitat Jaume I, the Spanish Centre for Advanced Scientific Research and the University of Pavia have patented new compounds with potent anticancer activity in breast and colon tumour cell lines that have low toxicity in healthy cells, which can dramatically decrease side effects during chemotherapy treatment.

23 Feb 2017

JAX researchers unravel mechanism that enables cancer cells to survive and divide

Some cancer cells have a trick up their sleeve to avoid cell death: boosting maintenance of telomeres, the protective "end caps" on chromosomes, and a research team led by Jackson Laboratory Professor Roel Verhaak reports in Nature Genetics on a newly discovered telomere maintenance mechanism.

31 Jan 2017

Stem cell research offers alternative view of cancer metastasis

Stem cells are among the most energetically activated, migratory and proliferative sub-populations of tumour cells, according to observations by scholars at the Biomedical Research Centre at the University of Salford.

18 Jan 2017

Genetic differences between brain cancer cells and normal tissues could offer clues to tumor behavior

Two recently discovered genetic differences between brain cancer cells and normal tissue cells -- an altered gene and a snippet of noncoding genetic material -- could offer clues to tumor behavior and potential new targets for therapy, Johns Hopkins scientists report.

2 Dec 2016

Preconsumption of red wine can prevent short-term vascular injury caused by smoking

Drinking red wine is widely regarded as protective against cardiovascular disease. A new report in The American Journal of Medicine found that a glass or two of red wine before lighting up a cigarette can counteract some of the short-term negative effects of smoking on blood vessels.

15 Nov 2016

Length of telomeres may reveal if vitamin D and omega-3 supplements improve heart health, longevity

The length of your telomeres appears to be a window into your heart health and longevity, and scientists are measuring them to see if vitamin D and omega-3 supplements really improve both.

14 Nov 2016

UPCI scientists reveal how cancer cells hijack DNA repair pathways to stay alive

Research by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute has revealed how cancer cells hijack DNA repair pathways to prevent telomeres, the endcaps of chromosomes, from shortening, thus allowing the tumor to spread. The findings are published today in the journal Cell Reports.

8 Nov 2016

New project clarifies molecular processes involved in hidden HIV reservoir

In spite of ever more effective therapies, HIV keeps managing to survive in the body. A comprehensive project conducted by the Austrian Science Fund FWF has clarified the molecular processes which contribute to this effect.

27 Sep 2016

Nobel laureate-led study uses new technology to watch interaction between telomerase and telomeres

As the rope of a chromosomes replicates, it frays at the ends. No problem: A chromosome's ends have extra twine so that fraying doesn't reach into the body of the rope where the important information resides.

19 Aug 2016

Penn researchers uncover strategy to reverse effects of dyskeratosis congenita

Dyskeratosis congenita, or DC, is a rare, inherited disease for which there are limited treatment options and no cure.

18 Aug 2016

Study reveals crucial role of TERRA in preservation of telomeres

Despite their especially compact structure that is difficult to access, telomeres transcribe information like the rest of the DNA.

18 Aug 2016

New disease gene linked to shortened telomeres appears to raise risk of pulmonary fibrosis-emphysema

Johns Hopkins researchers say they have identified a new disease gene that, when mutated, appears to increase the risk in a small number of people of developing emphysema and a lung-scarring condition known as pulmonary fibrosis.

10 Aug 2016

Male hormones can reverse biological drivers of aging, study shows

Telomerase, an enzyme naturally found in the human organism, is the closest of all known substances to a "cellular elixir of youth." In a recent study, Brazilian and US researchers show that sex hormones can stimulate production of this enzyme.

26 Jul 2016

Scientists develop new nonradioactive method to determine telomere length

UT Southwestern Medical Center cell biologists have identified a new method for determining the length of telomeres, the endcaps of chromosomes, which can influence cancer progression and aging.

30 Jun 2016

CNIO researchers avoid genetic manipulation to create lab mice with extra-long telomeres

The Telomeres and Telomerase Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, in collaboration with the Centre's Transgenic Mice Core Unit, has succeeded in creating mice in the laboratory with hyper-long telomeres and with reduced molecular ageing, avoiding the use of what to date has been the standard method: genetic manipulation.

3 Jun 2016

Maintaining cardiomyocyte telomere length may enhance heart regeneration in adults

Researchers at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research have discovered that the ends of heart muscle cell chromosomes rapidly erode after birth, limiting the cells' ability to proliferate and replace damaged heart tissue.

31 May 2016

MUSC Hollings Cancer Center receives $8.9 million grant to explore signaling in sphingolipids

The Medical University of South Carolina's Hollings Cancer Center received an $8.9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute designed to foster collaboration across clinical and laboratory research for the study of signaling in sphingolipids, a class of lipids known to be involved in the growth of solid tumor cancers.

10 May 2016

Homeostasis may have allowed first living cells to maintain internal environment

A Massachusetts General Hospital research team investigating how the earliest stages of life might have developed has discovered a way the first living cells could have met a key challenge -- maintaining a constant internal environment, a process called homeostasis, even when external conditions change.

17 Mar 2016

Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute awards grants for 10 bladder cancer research projects

A study of obesity and related metabolic changes on bladder cancer incidence and deaths, and a plan to use stem cells to grow novel urinary tubes are among 10 research projects awarded funding by the Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute.

7 Mar 2016