Chapter 4. Bisphenol A and Its Impact on Human Telomerase, Telomere Length and Cell Aging

2022 ◽  
pp. 87-105
Author(s):  
Hoai Thi Thu Tran ◽  
Evelyn Lamy
Author(s):  
Basak Celtikci ◽  
Gulnihal Kulaksiz Erkmen ◽  
Zeliha Gunnur Dikmen

: Telomeres are the protective end caps of eukaryotic chromosomes and they decide the proliferative lifespan of somatic cells, as the guardians of the cell replication. Telomere length in leucocytes reflects telomere length in other somatic cells. Leucocyte telomere length can be a biomarker of human ageing. The risk of diseases, which are associated with reduced cell proliferation and tissue degeneration, including aging or aging-associated diseases, such as dyskeratosis congenita, cardiovascular diseases, pulmonary fibrosis and aplastic anemia, are correlated with an increase in short telomeres. On the other hand, the risk of diseases, which are associated with increased proliferative growth, including major cancers, is correlated with long telomeres. In most of the cancers, a telomere maintenance mechanism during DNA replication is essential. The reactivation of the functional ribonucleoprotein holoenzyme complex [telomerase] starts the cascade from normal and premalignant somatic cells to advanced malignant cells. Telomerase is overexpressed during the development of cancer and embryonic stem cells, through controlling genome integrity, cancer formation and stemness. Cancer cells have mechanisms to maintain telomeres to avoid initiation of cellular senescence or apoptosis, and halting cell division by critically short telomeres. Modulation of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase is the ratelimiting step for the production of functional telomerase and the telomere maintenance. Human telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter promotes its gene expression only in tumor cells, but not in normal cells. Some cancers activate an alternative lengthening of telomeres maintenance mechanism via DNA recombination to unshorten their telomeres. Not only heritability but also oxidative stress, inflammation, environmental factors, and therapeutic interventions have an effect on telomere shortening, explaining the variability in telomere length across individuals. There have been a large number of publications, which correlate human diseases with progressive telomere shortening. Telomere length of an individual at birth is also important to follow up telomere shortening, and it can be used as biomarkers for healthy aging. On the other hand, understanding of cellular stress factors, which affect stem cell behavior, will be useful in regeneration or treatment in cancer and age-associated diseases. In this review, we will understand the connection between stem cell and telomere biology, cancer, and aging-associated diseases. This connection may be useful for discovering novel drug targets and improve outcomes for patients having cancer and aging-associated diseases.


Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (21) ◽  
pp. 4050-4050
Author(s):  
Rafael Díaz de la Guardia ◽  
Carolina Elosua ◽  
Purificación Catalina ◽  
Brian A Walker ◽  
David C Johnson ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 4050 The role of the telomeres in the mechanisms of ageing and carcinogenesis has generated a considerable interest as a novel approach to the treatment of many cancers. Telomeres are nucleoproteins structures that protect the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes, which are particularly vulnerable due to progressive shortening in almost all dividing cells. The telomere length was observed as a critical factor in the initiation and progression of human cancers, and it is associated to chromosomal instability. Most immortal cells possess enzymatic activity of telomerase. This suggests that telomerase activity and telomere length maintenance may be required for unlimited cell proliferation, tumorigenesis, and protection, allowing the evasion of apoptosis in cancer development. The telomerase activity could also be regulated positively or negatively by post-trancriptional and/or post-translational modification of the enzyme without transcriptional up-regulation of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) mRNA. In this work, we analyze the expression data of all genes involved in telomerase activity. Patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM), multiple myeloma (MM) and plasma cell leukemia (PLC) were studied through gene expression profiling analysis (Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 arrays, Affymetrix). We identify 21 deregulated genes, implicated directly in telomere length maintenance activity in clonal plasma cells compared with normal cells (20 up-regulated and 1 down-regulated). These genes are MYC, KRAS, HSPA9, RB1 and members of the families: Small nucleolar ribonucleoproteins (H/ACA snoRNPs), A/B subfamily of ubiquitously expressed heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs), and 14-3 -3 family. In conclusion, the myeloma cells acquire the telomere maintenance capability without deregulation of the human telomerase RNA gene (hTERC) and hTERT gene expression. It is an alternative lengthening of telomeres mechanism that has effect in the regulation of the BAD activity in apoptosis. The mechanism is based on preventing the partially-denatured proteins from aggregating, telomere maintenance through the correct processing and intranuclear trafficking of hTERC, telomerase reactivation and telomere stabilization, and efficient accumulation of hTERT in the nucleus. Thus, the findings of this study may help to improve telomerase-based therapy for multiple myeloma. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


2000 ◽  
Vol 165 (9) ◽  
pp. 4978-4984 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Migliaccio ◽  
Mario Amacker ◽  
Tom Just ◽  
Patrick Reichenbach ◽  
Danila Valmori ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
W. Garrels ◽  
W. Kues ◽  
U. Baulain ◽  
H. Niemann

Telomeres are repetitive, noncoding sequences at the ends of linear chromosomes that shorten with each cell division. They play an important role in aging and affect the regenerative capacity of cells. The holoenzyme telomerase rebuilds telomeres and is composed of 2 components, i.e. the catalytic protein component telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and the telomerase RNA component (TERC). In mammals, telomerase is active during embryogenesis, in germ cells and a subset of stem and progenitor cells. In the present study, we set out to express the TERC component alone and then in combination with TERT, the human telomerase complex, in bovine embryos. The human telomerase components are highly homologous to bovine telomerase genes. Here, 3 different expression constructs encoding hTERC, hTERT, and a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter were co-injected into bovine zygotes cytoplasm, and three groups of 528, 1865, and 110 zygotes were constituted; hTERC/GFP (Group 1), hTERT/hTERC/GFP (Group 2), and GFP alone (Group 3), respectively. GFP fluorescence was used to identify successfully injected embryos. This method has recently been established in our laboratory. Injected and control embryos were cultured for 7 days to the blastocyst stage in vitro and the impact on early embryonic development and the physiological consequences of an ectopic overexpression of telomerase in early bovine embryos were assayed. We obtained 45 blastocysts with green fluorescence in the first, 192 in the second, and 28 in the third group. Embryos with GFP fluorescence were frozen for subsequent PCR analysis and telomerase activity measurement. Some blastocyts were analyzed using quantitative fluoresence in situ hybridization to monitor telomere length. Control groups were analyzed for the endogenous levels of TERC and TERT. Results indicate that endogenous TERC and TERT are up-regulated in morulae and blastocyts. In this study, we show that human TERC and TERT can be expressed in blastocysts by cytoplasmic plasmid injection in bovine zygotes. Statistical analyses were performed using the JMP 7.0.1 for Windows software (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). The Tukey-Kramer test was applied to compare the group means. The expression of hTERC alone resulted in a significant extension of telomere length of 280 telomere fluorescence units. Expression of both components also resulted in a significant extension of telomere length. In conclusion, TERC component alone is sufficient to elongate telomere length. The activity measurement showed that telomerase activity in the hTERT and hTERC injected group is 1.77 times higher than in the control group. Findings from this study will allow a comprehensive analysis of the functions of TERT and TERC in early embryogenesis. The ectopic expression of telomerase components in bovine embryos could pave new avenues for generating stem cells and for the development of novel regenerative therapies. Funded by DFG.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-43
Author(s):  
Maria Alejandra Viviescas ◽  
Maria Isabel Nogueira Cano ◽  
Marcela Segatto

Telomere length maintenance is important for genome stability and cell division. In most eukaryotes, telomeres are maintained by the telomerase ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex, minimally composed of the Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) and the telomerase RNA (TER) components. In addition to TERT and TER, other protein subunits are part of the complex and are involved in telomerase regulation, assembly, disassembly, and degradation. Among them are some molecular chaperones such as Hsp90 and its co-chaperone p23 which are found associated with the telomerase RNP complex in humans, yeast and probably in protozoa. Hsp90 and p23 are necessary for the telomerase RNP assembly and enzyme activity. In budding yeast, the Hsp90 homolog (Hsp82) is also responsible for the association and dissociation of telomerase from the telomeric DNA by its direct interaction with a telomere end-binding protein (Cdc13), responsible for regulating telomerase access to telomeres. In addition, AAA+ ATPases, such as Pontin and Reptin, which are also considered chaperone- like proteins, associate with the human telomerase complex by the direct interaction of Pontin with TERT and dyskerin. They are probably responsible for telomerase RNP assembly since their depletion impairs the accumulation of the complex. Moreover, various RNA chaperones, are also pivotal in the assembly and migration of the mature telomerase complex and complex intermediates. In this review, we will focus on the importance of molecular chaperones for telomerase RNP biogenesis and how they impact telomere length maintenance and cellular homeostasis.


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