Journal article
Short-term inhibition of TERT induces telomere length-independent cell cycle arrest and apoptotic response in EBV-immortalized and transformed B cells
Andrea Celeghin, Silvia Giunco, Riccardo Freguja, Manuela Zangrossi, Silvia Nalio, Riccardo Dolcetti, Anita De Rossi
Cell Death and Disease | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2016
Abstract
Besides its canonical role in stabilizing telomeres, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) may promote tumorigenesis through extra-telomeric functions. The possible therapeutic effects of BIBR1532 (BIBR), a powerful TERT inhibitor, have been evaluated in different cellular backgrounds, but no data are currently available regarding Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-driven B-cell malignancies. Our aim was to characterize the biological effects of TERT inhibition by BIBR on EBV-immortalized lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) and fully transformed Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cell lines. We found that BIBR selectively inhibits telomerase activity in TERT-positive 4134/Late and 4134/TERT+ LCLs and EBV-negative..
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Awarded by Associazione Italiana per la ricerca sul Cancro
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Francesco Argenton and Angela Grassi for discussions about this project. We also thank Godinho Ferreira for suggestions and constructive comments on the experiments. We thank Xu Zhu for technical advice on TIF, and Laura Bonaldi for supervision of FISH assay and analysis. This study was supported by Associazione Italiana per la ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC IG-2013N.14258). SG is supported by a fellowship from AIRC.