Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is overexpressed in most human tumors, making it a potential target for cancer immunotherapy. hTERT-derived CTL epitopes have been identified previously, including p865 (RLVDDFLLV) and p540 (ILAKFLHWL), which are restricted by the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I A*0201 allele. However, it remains a major challenge to efficiently and consisten...

Based on the finding that telomerase is reactivated solely in cancer cells, the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) promoter has recently been used to target cancer cells by gene therapy. The recent, surprising observation that telomerase is physiologically activated even in normal somatic cells during S-phase has raised concerns as to the safety of this methodology. To clarify this ...

BACKGROUND Circulating DNA is observed at higher concentrations in patients with lung cancer than in controls. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of circulating DNA is a promising noninvasive tool. Our aim was to prospectively study the association between the catalytic subunit of telomerase (human telomerase reverse transcriptase [hTERT]) in plasma and clinical variables and survival in a l...

Telomerase is a specialized reverse transcriptase that extends telomeres of eukaryotic chromosomes. The functional telomerase complex contains a telomerase reverse transcriptase catalytic subunit and a telomerase template RNA. We have previously demonstrated that human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) catalytic subunit is functionally compatible with a telomerase template RNA from rabbi...

The loss of telomeric DNA with each cell division contributes to the limited replicative lifespan of human T lymphocytes. Although telomerase is transiently expressed in T lymphocytes upon activation, it is insufficient to confer immortality. We have previously shown that immortalization of human CD8+ T lymphocytes can be achieved by ectopic expression of the human telomerase reverse transcript...

Mounting clinical data suggest that high telomerase activity is tightly associated with cancer progression and poor outcomes. Constitutively activated STAT3 is found in ∼60% of human malignancies and shows a dismal prognosis. We previously reported that activated STAT3 promoted epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cancer stem cell phenotype in human breast cancer. However, little is know...

The early diagnosis and treatment of tumors is of vital significance to increase patient survival. Therefore, we constructed a lentiviral vector expressing tyrosinase (TYR) driven by an optimized human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) promoter or a cytomegalovirus(CMV) promoter in the hopes of performing noninvasive and real-time tumor-specific imaging. First, hTERT-TYR and CMV-TYR were...

Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is an attractive target for cancer gene therapy. However, the poor inhibition of telomerase and a time lag between the inhibition and arrest of cell proliferation limits its use in cancer gene therapy. RNA interference (RNAi) has been proposed as a potential technique for the treatment of cancer with a long-term gene silencing response induced by s...

Telomerase activity is closely correlated with cellular proliferative activity in human tissues. Human cells with high proliferative potential, such as tumor cells or stem cells, exhibit telomerase activity, whereas most normal human somatic cells do not. Telomerase activity is tightly regulated by the expression of its catalytic subunit human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). Through a...

HeLa cell cultures were used as model systems for small interfering RNA (siRNA) induced knockdown of mRNA expression of the human telomerase catalytic subunit, telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). Four 21-bp siRNAs targeting different sites of the hTERT mRNA were designed, and the siRNA molecules produced by a T7 transcription system in vitro. In transient transfection assays on HeLa cells...