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Inhibition of telomerase activity by a cell‐penetrating peptide nucleic acid construct in human melanoma cells
Author(s) -
Villa Raffaella,
Folini Marco,
Lualdi Susanna,
Veronese Silvio,
Daidone Maria Grazia,
Zaffaroni Nadia
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(00)01540-4
Subject(s) - telomerase , peptide nucleic acid , telomere , nucleic acid , peptide , rna , chemistry , melanoma , microbiology and biotechnology , telomerase reverse transcriptase , cell , cell culture , biochemistry , biology , dna , cancer research , genetics , gene
We investigated the effect of two peptide nucleic acids (PNAs), which are complementary to the RNA component of human telomerase, on the catalytic activity of the enzyme. PNAs induced a dose‐dependent reduction of telomerase activity in cell extracts from human melanoma cell lines and surgical specimens. To down‐regulate telomerase in intact cells, we generated a chimeric molecule synthesized by coupling the 13‐mer PNA to the Antennapedia peptide. The PNA construct induced a dose‐ and time‐dependent inhibition of telomerase activity. However, a 20‐day exposure to the PNA construct only caused a slight increase in melanoma cell doubling time and failed to induce any telomere shortening.