Poster Presentation 39th Annual Lorne Genome Conference 2018

Identification of ALT phenotypes in telomerase positive cancers (#123)

Eugene Choi 1 , Joyce Lee 1 , Hilda Pickett 1 , Roger Reddel 1
  1. Children's Medical Research Institute, Westmead, NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia

The immortality characteristics of the cancer cells is contributed by the maintenance of telomere lengths. Telomerase, a protein involved in elongation of the telomeres occurs in approximately 80% of cancers (1). The remaining cancers involve a mechanism which is independent of telomerase known as Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) and Ever Shortening Telomeres (EST).  A preliminary screening for ALT (C-circles) and Telomerase (qTRAP) in 384 cancer cell lines was performed. We discovered a few cancer cell lines with dual-telomere maintenance mechanism (Dual-TMM) indicated by the low levels of C-circles and telomerase activity.  Further identification of the ALT characteristics in the cell lines were showed promising results that this is the case.

 

 

  1. Bryan TM, Englezou A, Dalla-Pozza L, Dunham MA, Reddel RR. Evidence for an alternative mechanism for maintaining telomere length in human tumors and tumor-derived cell lines. Nat Med. 1997;3:1271-4.