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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Utilizing Murine Inducible Telomerase Alleles in the Studies of Tissue Degeneration/Regeneration and Cancer
08:34

Utilizing Murine Inducible Telomerase Alleles in the Studies of Tissue Degeneration/Regeneration and Cancer

Published on: April 13, 2015

Telomerase as a universal tumor-associated antigen for cancer immunotherapy

Robert H Vonderheide1

  • 1Department of Adult Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, MA 02115, USA.

Oncogene
|February 19, 2002
PubMed

Insights

The human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is a promising target for cancer immunotherapy. Cytotoxic T-lymphocytes recognize hTERT peptides, killing cancer cells, leading to clinical trials for hTERT-based cancer treatments.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Immunology
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Telomerase activity is crucial for cancer cell proliferation.
  • Pharmacologic inhibition of telomerase is a known anti-cancer strategy.
  • The human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) has unique immunological properties.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the potential of hTERT as a target for cancer immunotherapy.
  • To evaluate the immunogenicity of hTERT-derived peptides.
  • To assess the efficacy of TERT-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL) in targeting cancer cells.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of TERT peptide recognition by human and murine cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL).
  • Assessment of CTL-mediated killing of TERT-positive tumor cells across various histologies.
  • Evaluation of hTERT expression levels in tumor tissues versus normal tissues.

Main Results:

  • Cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL) can recognize peptides derived from TERT.
  • TERT-specific CTLs effectively kill TERT-positive tumor cells.
  • hTERT is overexpressed in most human tumors but minimally expressed in normal tissues.

Conclusions:

  • hTERT is a viable and broadly applicable target for cancer immunotherapy.
  • The immunogenicity of hTERT supports its use in novel anti-cancer therapies.
  • Clinical trials are underway to validate hTERT-based immunotherapies for cancer treatment.

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