Telomerase reactivation is one of the hallmarks of cancer, which plays an important role in cellular immortalization and the development and progression of the tumor. Chemical telomerase inhibitors have been shown to trigger replicative senescence and apoptotic cell death both in vitro and in vivo. Due to its upregulation in various cancers, telomerase is considered a potential target in cancer therapy. In this study, we identified...

Telomeres are complex nucleoprotein assemblies that play a vital role in the maintenance of functional ends of linear chromosomes. Telomeric DNA, composed of tandem repeats of the 5'-TTAGGG-3' motif, solves the so-called end replication problem: as chromosomes shorten with each cell division, no information is lost, and the telomere can be re-extended. In the cell, many protein factors regulate telomere length, nuclear positioning...

Oxidative damage to DNA is widely known to contribute to aging and disease. This relationship has been extensively studied for telomeres – structures that cap chromosome ends – due to their role in cell proliferation and senescence, and exceptional susceptibility to oxidation. Indeed, the repetitive telomeric DNA sequence contains the 5′-GGG-3′ motif that has the lowest ionization potential of all trinucleotides. Accordingly, experiments...