Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres in Neoplasia
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2023) | Viewed by 9020
Special Issue Editor
Interests: chromosome instability; telomere dysfunction; cancer, continuous growth
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Telomeres play a dual role in neoplasia. On one hand, these highly conserved repetitive nucleoprotein structures located at the tips of linear chromosomes safeguard somatic cells from tumorigenic mutations and thus prevent cancer. Nonetheless, most tumors bypass replicative senescence and support malignant cell growth via the activation of telomere maintenance mechanisms (TMM). Underpinning their important role in neoplasia, DNA damage responses lie at the epicenter of these seemingly contradictory but highly interrelated telomere functions. It is well established that the great majority of cancers sustain capacity for uncontrolled continuous cell proliferation through the activation of reverse transcriptase telomerase. However, approximately 10-15% of human neoplasms maintain their telomeres via at least two distinct homologous recombination-mediated pathways, termed Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT). Although much rarer and less well understood than telomerase activity, ALT is considered equally important, not only because it involves a subset of highly aggressive tumors, but also due to its putative engagement as a resistance mechanism that may burden all current and future onco-therapies based on telomerase suppression. During the past decade, significant progress has been made in understanding the underlying mechanisms of ALT. Epigenetic modifications, telomere-interacting factors, and homology-driven DNA damage repair has been implicated in the ALT pathway. These advances hold promise for the development of novel highly efficient therapies that target TMM in neoplasia. This thematic issue of Cancers is dedicated to presenting through comprehensive reviews and research articles the substantial progress in our knowledge of ALT, which is expected to be soon translated into novel clinical oncology applications.
Dr. Sarantis Gagos
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- alternative lengthening of telomeres—ALT
- telomere maintenance
- replication stress
- break-induced replication
- mitotic DNA synthesis
- homologous recombination
- ALT-associated PML bodies
- telomeric sister chromatid exchanges
- telomeric C-circles
- ATRX, DAXX, nuclear-receptor recruitment to telomeres
