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. 2022 May;25(5):158.
doi: 10.3892/mmr.2022.12674. Epub 2022 Mar 10.

Τelomerase inhibitors and activators in aging and cancer: A systematic review

Persefoni Fragkiadaki  1   2 , Elisavet Renieri  1 , Katerina Kalliantasi  1 , Elisavet Kouvidi  3 , Evita Apalaki  4 , Elena Vakonaki  1   2 , Charalampos Mamoulakis  5 , Demetrios A Spandidos  6 , Aristidis Tsatsakis  1   2
Affiliations

Τelomerase inhibitors and activators in aging and cancer: A systematic review

Persefoni Fragkiadaki et al. Mol Med Rep. 2022 May.

Abstract

The main aim of the present systematic review was to summarize the most frequently used telomerase regulators with an impact on aging and cancer that are referred to in in vitro and in vivo studies. For this purpose, a systematic review of the available literature on telomerase regulators referred to in articles from PubMed and Scopus libraries published from 2002 to 2021 and in accordance with PRISMA 2020 criteria, was conducted. Articles were included if they met the following criteria: They referred to telomerase modulators in aging and in cancer and were in vitro and/or in vivo studies, while studies that did not provide sufficient data or studies not written in English were excluded. In the present systematic review, 54 publications were included, of which 29 were full‑text published studies, 11 were full‑text reviews, 10 structure‑based design studies and 4 abstracts are reported in this review. Telomerase regulators were then categorized as synthetic direct telomerase inhibitors, synthetic indirect telomerase inhibitors, synthetic telomerase activators, natural direct telomerase activators, natural telomerase inhibitors and natural indirect telomerase activators, according to their origin and their activity. On the whole, as demonstrated herein, telomerase regulators appear to be promising treatment agents in various age‑related diseases. However, further in vivo and in vitro studies need to be performed in order to clarify the potentiality of telomerase as a therapeutic target.

Keywords: activators; inhibitors; regulators; telomerase enzyme; telomere length.

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Conflict of interest statement

DAS is the Editor-in-Chief for the journal, but had no personal involvement in the reviewing process, or any influence in terms of adjudicating on the final decision, for this article. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA flow diagram for the identification and selection of studies.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Mechanistic representation of telomerase inhibition by synthetic direct inhibitors (the image was drawn using BioRender). PARP, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase; PARP, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase; hTERT, human telomerase reverse transcriptase.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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