IN VITRO ANTI-TUMOR POTENTIAL OF TELOMERASE INHIBITORS
Cancer, telomerase
The telomerase plays a key role in carcinogenesis, giving cells the potential for cell immortalization. Furthermore, its presence in about 85% of types of cancer has made telomerase modulation a potential oncological therapeutic target. In this work, we investigated the effects of short- and long-term exposure of telomerase-positive cervical carcinoma cells to two telomerase inhibitor molecules - BRACO-19 and MST-312, in terms of viability, death profile and impact on the cell cycle, as well as enzyme expression and telomere length. The HeLa cells demonstrated a dose-dependency in the treatment with the compounds for 24 and 48 hours. Despite a reduction in the proliferative profile in relation to the control groups, long-term exposure of cells to compounds in subtoxic concentrations did not show significant changes in terms of telomerase enzyme expression and telomere length. The results obtained in this study point to a possible action of telomere inhibitors by other non-canonical pathways of action of the telomerase enzyme, other than telomere shortening.