Nucleic Acids as Targets for Antitelomerase Agents

摘要

Telomeric DNA progressively erodes with each round of cell division in cells that do not expressntelomerase, a specialized reverse transcriptase necessary to fully duplicate the chromosomal ends. Telomerasenis expressed in tumor cells but not in most somatic cells and thus telomeres and telomerase may be proposednas attractive targets for the discovery of new anticancer agents. In this paper we will present different strategiesnto inhibit telomerase activity via an interaction with a telomere/telomerase nucleic acid component, with anspecial emphasis on quadruplex ligands.