Abstract
Malignant glioblastomas grow very rapidly and are generally resistant to either DNA-damaging drugs or γ-irradiation. If tumor cells could be made more susceptible to cell death with treatments, this would clearly represent a significant improvement in the success of treatment. Recently, telomerase has become a focus of interest among oncologists as a target for treating cancer cells. Telomerase elongates telomeric DNA repeats (TTAGGG)n and is important in protecting and replicating DNA. The vast majority of tumor cells, indeed, express telomerase activity whereas normal somatic cells, except for a few cells, do not. Since telomerase is essential for protecting DNA, we may be able to make tumors more sensitive to treatments with DNA-damaging drugs by inhibiting telomerase activity. In this study, we used cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (cisplatin)-sensitive U87-MG cells and cisplatin-resistant U251-MG of human malignant glioblastoma cell lines. U87-MG cells did not express telomerase activity, whereas telomerase was highly detected in U251-MG cells. Interestingly, inhibition of telomerase with an antisense telomerase expression vector not only decreased telomerase activity but also increased susceptibility to cisplatin-induced apoptotic cell death in U251-MG cells. These findings suggest that treatment with antisense telomerase may represent a new chemosensitisation for tumors resistant to anticancer drugs.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 50 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $5.18 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kondo, Y., Kondo, S., Tanaka, Y. et al. Inhibition of telomerase increases the susceptibility of human malignant glioblastoma cells to cisplatin-induced apoptosis. Oncogene 16, 2243–2248 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1201754
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1201754
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
miR-490 suppresses telomere maintenance program and associated hallmarks in glioblastoma
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (2021)
-
Chromosomal integration of HHV-6A during non-productive viral infection
Scientific Reports (2017)
-
New prospects for targeting telomerase beyond the telomere
Nature Reviews Cancer (2016)
-
Isothiocyanates sensitize the effect of chemotherapeutic drugs via modulation of protein kinase C and telomerase in cervical cancer cells
Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry (2009)
-
The sensitization of glioma cells to cisplatin and tamoxifen by the use of catechin
Molecular Biology Reports (2009)