检测和研究人类细胞和癌症中的端粒替代延长活性。

Assaying and investigating Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres activity in human cells and cancers.

机构信息

Children's Medical Research Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

出版信息

FEBS Lett. 2010 Sep 10;584(17):3800-11. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2010.06.009. Epub 2010 Jun 11.

DOI:10.1016/j.febslet.2010.06.009

PMID:20542034

Abstract

Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) activity can be deduced from the presence of telomere length maintenance in the absence of telomerase activity. More convenient assays for ALT utilize phenotypic markers of ALT activity, but only a few of these assays are potentially definitive. Here we assess each of the current ALT assays and their implications for understanding the ALT mechanism. We also review the clinical situations where availability of an ALT activity assay would be advantageous. The prevalence of ALT ranges from 25% to 60% in sarcomas and 5% to 15% in carcinomas. Patients with many of these types of ALT[+] tumors have a poor prognosis.

摘要

端粒的替代性延长（ALT）活性可以通过在缺乏端粒酶活性的情况下存在端粒长度维持来推断。更方便的 ALT 活性测定法利用 ALT 活性的表型标志物，但其中只有少数几个测定法具有潜在的确定性。在这里，我们评估了当前的 ALT 测定法及其对理解 ALT 机制的意义。我们还回顾了在哪些临床情况下，ALT 活性测定法的可用性会带来优势。肉瘤中 ALT 的患病率为 25%至 60%，而癌中为 5%至 15%。许多具有这种 ALT[+]肿瘤的患者预后较差。