Study of human telomere G4-DNA stabilizers / 中国药理学通报

Telomere maintenance plays a critical role in cancer progression.Approximately 85% human cancer cells maintain their telomere length through activation of telomerase.Other 15%of cancers maintain telomere length independently of telom-erase by alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT)pathway. Both events are equally important for telomere length mainte-nance of cancer cells.Human telomere consists of a series of G rich DNA sequences,which could form G-quadruplex.The for-mation of this structure can block the extension of telomeres by telomerase or ALT,resulting in cancer cell death.Thereby,G-quadruplex has been one of the focuses of anticancer therapy in recent years.This review focuses on the latest progress of G-quadruplex stabilizers.