Essential ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase that adds telomeric DNA to the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomerase appears to be repressed in normal human somatic tissues but reactivated in cancer, and thus may be necessary for malignant transformation.<\/p>\n
An enzyme that enables the “repair” of telomeres (thereby stabilizing their length, and preventing “shortening” of the telomeres). The telomerase enzyme is only present in cancerous cells (thereby enabling the “immortality” of cancerous cells). Human telomerase contains an RNA component and a catalytic-protein component (i.e., a member of the reverse transcriptase “family” of enzymes).<\/p>\n
An enzyme that helps cells repair the damage that occurs to the end of the DNA molecule during each cycle of cell division. Without such repair, cells eventually age and die. Cancer cells have telomerases that allow infinite repair to the DNA strands, a factor that contributes to their \u201cimmortality.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Essential ribonucleoprotein reverse transcriptase that adds telomeric DNA to the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomerase appears to be repressed in normal human somatic tissues but reactivated in cancer, and thus may be necessary for malignant transformation. An enzyme that enables the “repair” of telomeres (thereby stabilizing their length, and preventing “shortening” of the telomeres). The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-t"],"yoast_head":"\n