Fajkus Jirí
Department of Functional Genomics and Proteomics, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Clin Chim Acta. 2006 Sep;371(1-2):25-31. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2006.02.039. Epub 2006 Apr 17.
Telomerase activity is closely connected to problems of cellular immortality, proliferative capacity, differentiation, cancer and aging. Correspondingly, techniques for its detection have been essential for progress in telomere biology and are of still increasing importance in molecular diagnostics and therapy of cancer. This article reviews the development of the telomere repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) and its various modifications as the most widespread assay to detect and measure telomerase activity. Alternative possibilities of telomerase activity detection are also discussed which make it possible to omit the PCR-mediated amplification of telomerase products. These approaches are based on recent advances in highly sensitive detection systems.
端粒酶活性与细胞永生化、增殖能力、分化、癌症及衰老等问题密切相关。相应地，其检测技术对于端粒生物学的进展至关重要，并且在癌症的分子诊断与治疗中愈发重要。本文综述了端粒重复序列扩增法（TRAP）及其各种改良方法的发展，这是检测和测量端粒酶活性最广泛应用的检测方法。还讨论了检测端粒酶活性的其他可能性，这些方法无需通过PCR介导扩增端粒酶产物。这些方法基于高灵敏度检测系统的最新进展。
