"Landmark" advance hope for cancer treatment
Monday, 01 Sep 2008 13:41
Hopes over potential cancer treatments raised after scientists map enzyme which plays major role in tumour growth
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Hopes over potential cancer treatments have been raised after scientists mapped an enzyme that plays a major role in tumour growth.
US researchers say the deciphering of telomerase is a "landmark achievement", and could lead to effective cancer drugs and anti-ageing therapies.
Telomeres – highly repeated DNA sequences - are used by all chromosomes to protect them from degradation, shortening each time a cell divides.
But cancerous cells can hijack the enzyme, which is present in 90 per cent of all tumours, to expand.
Scientists have been engaged in a decade-long bid to find drugs that shut the enzyme down in cancer patients.
Emmanuel Skordalakes, assistant professor at Philadelphia's Wistar Institute, said: "Telomerase is an ideal target for chemotherapy because it is active in almost all human tumours, but inactive in most normal cells.
"That means a drug that deactivates telomerase would likely work against all cancers, with few side effects."
Commenting on today's research, published in Nature, Cancer Research UK's senior science information officer Liz Baker said: "This is a crucial part of the puzzle in understanding how telomerase works.
"Fundamental research like this may help scientists to design drugs that block telomerase and could potentially be used to treat a wide range of cancers."