Telomerase regulation in hematological cancers: A matter of stemness?

Laure Deville , Josette Hillion , Evelyne Ségal-Bendirdjian

Human telomerase is a nuclear ribonucleoprotein enzyme complex that catalyzes the synthesis and extension of telomeric DNA. This enzyme is highly expressed and active in most malignant tumors while it is usually not or transiently detectable in normal somatic cells, suggesting that it plays an important role in cellular immortalization and tumorigenesis. As most leukemic cells are generally telomerase-positive and have often shortened telomeres, our understanding of how telomerase is deregulated in these diseases could help to define novel therapies targeting the telomere/telomerase complex. Nonetheless, considering that normal hematopoietic stem cells and some of their progeny do express a functional telomerase, it is tempting to consider such an activity in leukemias as a sustained stemness feature and important to understand how telomere length and telomerase activity are

Mots clés: Telomerase; telomere; leukemia; stem cells; anti-telomerase strategies

Laure Deville, Josette Hillion, Evelyne Ségal-Bendirdjian. Telomerase regulation in hematological cancers: A matter of stemness?. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Molecular Basis of Disease, 2009, 1792 (4), pp.229. ⟨10.1016/j.bbadis.2009.01.016⟩. ⟨hal-00486075⟩