Eissenberg Joel C
Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, USA.
Mo Med. 2013 Jan-Feb;110(1):11-6.
Like our clothes, our chromosomes fray at the edges with age. Some believe that if we could discover a molecular tailor to patch our age-abraded chromosome ends, we could become modern Methuselahs. Notably, cancer cells achieve immortality by protecting their chromosome ends. Drugs that selectively fray the ends of cancer cell chromosomes would be potent and general anti-cancer therapies. Here, I summarize data on the role of chromosome ends in cellular and organismal aging.
如同我们的衣物，我们的染色体末端也会随着年龄增长而磨损。一些人认为，如果我们能找到一位分子裁缝来修补因年龄而磨损的染色体末端，我们就能成为现代的玛士撒拉（译注：《圣经》中最长寿的人）。值得注意的是，癌细胞通过保护其染色体末端来实现永生。能够选择性地磨损癌细胞染色体末端的药物将是强大而通用的抗癌疗法。在此，我总结了关于染色体末端在细胞和机体衰老中作用的数据。
