PURPOSE We previously reported the usefulness of a qualified highly sensitive detection method for human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) mRNA in serum with 89.7% sensitivity for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study, we developed a quantitative detection method for serum hTERT mRNA and examined the clinical significance in HCC diagnosis. EXPERIMENTAL BACKGROUND: In 64 patients ...

objective: inhibition of apoptosis may favor the onset and progression of cancer. survivin is an inhibitor of apoptosis that has been considered as a potential marker for diagnostic and/or prognostic of bladder cancer. the survivin protein regulates both cell division and cell death and is overexpressed in the vast majority of human cancers. in this study, the expression pattern and potential p...

Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is the catalytic subunit and the activity determinant factor of the telomerase enzyme which maintains the length of human chromosomes. In recent years it has become an attractive molecular target for cancer gene therapy. In the present study, we show that hTERT siRNA effectively suppressed the expression of hTERT mRNA and hTERT protein levels, redu...

Telomerase activity is a wide tumor marker. Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), the catalytic subunit of the telomerase, is transcriptionally upregulated exclusively in about 90% of cancer cells. In this study, we constructed a novel adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector containing the human interferon-beta (hIFN-beta) gene under the control of hTERT promoter (AAV-hTERT-hIFN-beta) and...

Many reports showed that hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1 ), the main factor activated by hypoxia, plays a role in the transcriptional regulation of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), one of the critical elements of the oncogenic process. As a hypoxia-mimetic agent, cobalt chloride (CoCl2) can induce the accumulation of HIF-1 . Herein, we demonstrated that hTERT expression was...

An effective tumor vaccine may require the induction of both CTL and T-helper (Th) cell responses against tumor-associated antigens. Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is highly expressed in >85% of cancer cells and thus is a potential target for tumor vaccines. We therefore sought to identify promiscuous Th epitopes in hTERT, which can be presented by more than one MHC class II all...

Expression of hTERT is the major limiting factor for telomerase activity. We previously showed that methylation of the hTERT promoter is necessary for its transcription and that CTCF can repress hTERT transcription by binding to the first exon. In this study, we used electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) to show that CTCF does not bind the methylat...

The acquisition of expression of hTERT, the catalytic subunit of the telomerase enzyme, seems to be an essential step in the development of a majority of human tumors. However, little is known about the mechanisms preventing telomerase gene expression in normal and transformed cells that do not express hTERT. Using a methylation-specific PCR-based assay, we have found that the CpG island associ...

Hanan Selman Hessan and Ahmed Mohammed Abbas 563 Abstract Immune status was examined after tonsillectomy operations in 30 children with recurrent acute tonsillitis, their ages ranged between 3-10 years, were clinically diagnosed by ENT surgeon at AlHilla General Teaching Hospital and 10 apparently healthy children were included as a control in the study which lasted from February to May 2011 .I...

Genistein, the most abundant isoflavone present in soybean has antiproliferative effects on a variety of cancer cells, including prostate cancer. However, the molecular mechanism of antiproliferative effects of genistein is not entirely understood. Because the activation of telomerase is crucial for cells to gain immortality and proliferation ability, we examined the role of genistein in the re...