In a paper published this week in the journal Nature Cell Biology, UC Berkeley molecular biologists describe a significant difference between the way normal and cancerous cells handle an enzyme called telomerase, which is critical to unrestricted cell growth. The enzyme maintains the telomeres that cap the ends of each chromosome, keeping them long enough so that DNA replication and cell division go without a hitch. Funny, I didn't know that cancer cells treated telomerase any differently than normal cells did! Apparently they keep it active, all the time, when healthy cells segregate telomerase and only use it once per round of cell division. Targeting Enzymes that Immortalize Cancer Cells |