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ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Counteracting Alzheimer’s disease via somatic TERT activation

Nature Aging volume 1, pages 1081–1082 (2021)Cite this article

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Age is the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and aging is associated with the shortening of telomeres, the terminal regions of chromosomes. A new study shows that somatic activation of telomerase reverse transcriptase protein, an enzyme that maintains telomere length, ameliorates Alzheimer’s-disease-related phenotypes in mouse models and neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

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Fig. 1: Somatic TERT activation ameliorates amyloid accumulation and neurocognitive impairments.

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Acknowledgements

J.Z. is supported by an Alzheimer’s Association grant 2018-AARF-592302. G.B and T.K, are supported by grants from NIH and Cure Alzheimer’s Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, The Fourth Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China

    Yuan Fu

  2. Department of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Guojun Bu, Takahisa Kanekiyo & Jing Zhao

  3. Neuroregeneration Laboratory, Center for Regenerative Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Guojun Bu, Takahisa Kanekiyo & Jing Zhao

Authors
  1. Yuan Fu
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  2. Guojun Bu
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  3. Takahisa Kanekiyo
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  4. Jing Zhao
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Correspondence to Jing Zhao.

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Competing interests

G.B. consults for SciNeuro and Vida Ventures, has consulted for AbbVie, E-Scape and Eisai, and serves as a co-editor-in-chief for Molecular Neurodegeneration. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Fu, Y., Bu, G., Kanekiyo, T. et al. Counteracting Alzheimer’s disease via somatic TERT activation. Nat Aging 1, 1081–1082 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00145-0

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