Mechanisms underlying the activation of TERT transcription and telomerase activity in human cancer: old actors and new players.
Long-lived species Homo sapiens have advanced strong safety mechanisms towards most cancers by repressing telomerase and sustaining brief telomeres, thereby delaying the onset of the majority of most cancers varieties till post-reproductive age. Indeed, telomerase is silent in most differentiated human cells, predominantly on account of the transcriptional repression of its catalytic element telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene. The...